Bite into scary storytelling

By Stephanie Dunnewind
Seattle Times staff reporter

PHOTO BY JOHN LOK, ARTWORK BY MICHELLE KUMATA / THE SEATTLE TIMES

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Tonight about 6 — when it's dark but still a couple hours before bedtime — gather your school-age kids together, turn down the lights, cuddle them close and tell scary Halloween stories.

For a low-tech fright, try an old-fashioned ghost story or urban legend. While parents want to avoid truly scary tales for young children (opt for silly or funny instead), older elementary-school-age kids often enjoy a good scare, say local children's librarians and storytellers.

"People like being scared in a safe place where they can experience fear without being in danger," said Margaret Read MacDonald, a local storyteller, author and retired children's librarian.

"With all these stories, you get to pretend you're something you're not and feel all these intense emotions," agreed children's librarian Avis Jobrack, who compares the thrill of scary stories to riding a roller coaster. "You feel so good when it's over — that feeling of relief that you survived. You get to release those emotions safely."

Telling scary stories Some tips for parents. Don't play on children's fears. Know your child and take his or her temperament into consideration. Don't tell scary stories right before bed. Not only does it encourage bad dreams, but kids will probably be all wound up too. Light a candle. Or sit in front of the fireplace for ambiance. Read a story several times but don't memorize it. Retell a folktale or story in your own words and style. "It doesn't have to be polished," said children's librarian Avis Jobrack. "Just tell with relish and glee." Start with a conversational tone. "You know, I remember one time when ... " Mention that this happened to a friend of a friend, or an old neighbor who used to live down the street. "A quiet, deadpan delivery, especially of a scary story, is when a child's imagination really goes wild," Jobrack said. Lower your voice and tone. "Lower tones are scarier," said acclaimed storyteller Margaret Read MacDonald. Then raise the volume for emphasis. Slow down. Pause to give listeners time to imagine what's happening in the story. Keep details sketchy. "Being graphic isn't half as scary as letting kids use their own imaginations," Jobrack said. "They make it a lot scarier." Emphasize sounds. A door doesn't creak, it crrreeeaakkks. A quietly told story is suddenly interrupted by a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK at the door. Local events Storyteller Susie Irwin will share "Silly Spooky Stories" for age 3 and up at 11 a.m. today at Island Books, 3014 78th Ave. S.E., Mercer Island, www.mercerislandbooks.com or 206-232-6920. Professional storytellers will relate "Spooky Stories for an Autumn Night" at 7 tonight at the Jewel Box Theater, 225 Iverson St., Poulsbo. $10 admission includes hot cider and cookies. Costumes welcome. For suggested reservations, call 360-779-9688; more information, www.jewelboxpoulsbo.org. Sources: Local storytellers Margaret Read MacDonald, Avis Jobrack and Pat Peterson.

Children are comforted by the discovery others have similar worries. "There are things in everyone's closet," MacDonald said. "It helps kids know they're not the only one."

Folklore from around the world shows that "everybody has these kinds of [scary] stories," said Pat Peterson, president of the Seattle Storytellers Guild (www.seattlestorytelling.org). "There's something about the unexplained that fascinates us."

In 25 years of storytelling, "the interesting thing I've discovered with ghost stories is that as sophisticated as we think children are with all their exposure to media and computers, there is still great power in storytelling.

"Having a real-life person telling you something adds to the believability of it," Peterson said. "The stories that shivered parents when they were young do the same thing today."

Storytelling also gives parents and kids a time to connect. "The fact that the story is coming from you instead of a tape or video really makes it exciting," Jobrack said.

The same tale can be scary or funny depending on whether it's told in a creepy or playful style, said MacDonald, author of "The Parents' Guide to Storytelling: How to Make Up New Stories and Retell Old Favorites." She wouldn't tell a really scary story until children are in the fifth or sixth grade.

Younger children

Until late elementary school, "mild anticipation and a little bit of silliness is best," said Jobrack, who tells stories at the Federal Way Regional Library.

Preschoolers and early elementary-school kids identify with characters as they overcome challenges, deal with their fears and see that "everything turns out happily," she said.

Audience participation, such as making sounds or chanting repetitive lines, gives children control of a story and lessens the fear factor, Jobrack said.

A story such as "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything," which features the repeated chorus of "I'm not afraid of you!," helps children learn how to cope with scary things. "And it's lots of fun," she added.

Participatory stories also let children act out the parts of both the powerful (whatever is scary) and the weak (the victim, who gets the last word). "They get to be the angry, scary monster as well as the scared little kid," Jobrack said.

Parents can find picture books of traditional scary stories, such as "The Teeny Tiny Woman," "King of the Cats" or MacDonald's upcoming "The Squeaky Door."

Spooky collections For younger children "This Book is Haunted," Joanne Rocklin (HarperTrophy, 2003) "Tell Me a Scary Story... But Not Too Scary," Carl Reiner (Little, Brown, 2003) "Scary Stories to Read When it's Dark," Reading Rainbow (SeaStar Books, 2000) "I Dare You: Stories to Scare You," Kathleen Keeler (Scholastic, 2000) "Boo! Stories to Make You Jump," Laura Cecil (Greenwillow, 1990) "In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories," Alvin Schwartz (HarperTrophy, 1985) For older kids "Dare to be Scared: Thirteen Stories to Chill and Thrill," Robert D. San Souci (Cricket Books, 2003). Also check out the author's "Short & Shivery" series of books. "Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark" series, edited by Alvin Schwartz (HarperTrophy) "Familiar and Haunting: Collected Stories," Philippa Pearce (Greenwillow, 2002) "13 Scary Ghost Stories," Marianne Carus (Sagebrush Bound, 2002) "Beware!: R.L. Stine Picks his Favorite Scary Stories," collected by R.L. Stine (HarperCollins, 2002) "Ask the Bones: Scary Stories From Around the World," selected and retold by Arielle North Olson and Howard Schwartz (Puffin Books, 2002) "Campfire Ghost Stories," Jo-Anne Christensen (Lone Pine Publishing, 2002) "Favorite Scary Stories of American Children," by Richard Young and Judy Dockrey Young (August House Publishers, 1999). Also by the same authors, "The Scary Story Reader." "The Young Oxford Book of Nasty Endings," edited by Dennis Pepper (Oxford University Press, 1999)

An atmospheric setting, such as a cabin on a dark, stormy night, is often enough for the younger crowd.

Developmentally, young children have a hard time distinguishing between make-believe and reality so parents don't want to tell stories that sound true.

"With all the scariness going on in the world today, we want our scary stories to be clearly stories," Jobrack said.

Peterson provides her audiences with a technique for warding off bad dreams — just in case. (She says laying a pair of shoes heel to heel alongside the bed helps block nightmares.)

By fourth grade, some of kids' favorite tales aren't scary so much as startling, when the storyteller lunges at the audience, grabs someone's arm or shouts at the end of a "gotcha" or "jump" story. "It's just a fun thing," MacDonald said. "Kids get a kick out of it."

Older kids

Often, when kids ask for scary stories, they're not asking for blood and guts, Jobrack said. "What they really want is something gross. It's really more disgusting than scary but it fits in the genre."

An example of this are urban legends, such as the Southern-fried rat story about diners who discover their takeout "chicken" is, in fact, a rodent. (Naturally, the tale usually ends with someone getting sued, which adds to the realism.)

Jobrack calls many of the stories "kid lore," the kinds of stories tweens tell peers to out-scare each other.

For the older set, forget happy endings and "yeah, right" plots. Set stories nearby, such as upstairs or in a house just down the road.

"If I'm telling to older Boy Scouts and want to scare the living daylights out of them, I'll put a tone in my voice as if I believe it really happened," said MacDonald. "The stories that work best are true or told as if they're true."

After telling some of her best ghost stories to a Seattle public high-school audience, Peterson had a tall football player come over, lean close and ask, "What you told about those people, it wasn't true, was it?"

To which Peterson gave her standard reply: "When I'm telling it, it's true. Afterwards, it's up to you to decide."

Whatever his conclusion, he probably still remembers the tale with a shiver. "Long after the candy is rationed out and gone and kids are too old to go trick-or-treating," Peterson says, "those stories will stick with them and they'll pass them on to others in their lives."

Stephanie Dunnewind: sdunnewind@seattletimes.com.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More living headlines...