Even More Short & Shivery: Thirty Spine-Tingling Tales

Short & Shivery #3

by Robert D. San Souci, Jacqueline Rogers (Illustrator)

Thirty chilling stories from around the world provide plenty of shivers in this spooky collection. If you liked Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, you’ll devour these spin-tingling tales!   Curl up with old friends like Washington Irving's "Guests from Gibbet Island" or Charles Dickens' "Chips." Or make the acquaintance of "The Skull That Spoke" and "The Monster of Baylock"--but beware of spectral visitors like "The Blood-Drawing Ghost." This exciting mixture of classic and contemporary tales from Mexico, China, Poland, Nigeria, and other lands near and far is perfect for hair-raising reading!   Twenty deliciously eerie illustrations by Jacqueline Rogers highlight this companion to Robert D. San Souci's earlier collections of scary stories, Short & Shivery and More Short & Shivery, which School Library Journal called "an absolute delight."

Genres: Horror, Childrens, Short Stories, Fiction, Ghosts, Young Adult, Paranormal

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Robert Daniel San Souci (October 10, 1946 – December 19, 2014) was a multiple award-winning children's book author, who resided in San Francisco, California. He often worked with his brother, Daniel San Souci, a children's book illustrator. He was a consultant to Disney Studios and was instrumental in the production of the film Mulan, for which he wrote the story. He studied folklore in graduate school. He died after suffering a head injury while falling from a high height in San Francisco in December 2014. He was only 68 years old.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I get asked often why I read books and stories that are technically children's literature. Why not? Some of the best classic books were written for kids: Heidi, Little Women, etc. My favorite kids books are often collections of horror, folklore and ghost stories. No spurting blood, cursing or naked people -- just fun, spooky tales. In my opinion, reading is a wonderful hobby....and personalized to each person. Read what you enjoy....and make no apologies for it. I love to read kids books!

There are several Short & Shivery collections of scary tales for kids. The stories are all middle grade appropriate. Each story is spooky...but not TOO scary. Kids will be happy....and Moms will be happy. No 2 a.m. visits from little ones saying "Mom, I'm scared. Can I sleep with you?'' The stories are entertaining, not nightmare inducing.

I decided to re-read these nifty little story collections while snowed in at home this week. The south shuts down when it snows. Nothing to do out there but shiver in the cold.....and southerners can't drive safely in snow. Best for me to stay home with hot tea and good books. I can shiver peacefully at home with creepy tales of vampires, demons, vengeful dead pirates and all things that go bump in the night!

Even More Short & Shivery gathers 30 creepy tales from around the world. I enjoyed them all! I highly recommend any of the books in the Short & Shivery series. They are all great!! And at just over 160 pages, this book is a quick read for adults and a manageable easy read for middle grade kids.

[Unsolved ☕︎ Mystery · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty cool collection of urban legends.
It was made for middle grade, but you wouldn't think that by reading it.
Some of the stories are down right brutal, and the illustrations were just as gruesome.

Never did I think it was juvenile; with that being said, I enjoyed it.
It was better than I expected.
Although, near the middle, I did become slightly bored of reading it. I think this is because some of the stories are similar to each other, so they were blurring together.

Some of the stories actually made me scared. 😜

I would recommend this to young and older readers.

Get your spooky on! 😱

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of genuinely chilling tales (and some excellent art to go with it!) This series has been wonderful and I'd recommend these books to anyone who enjoyed Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining fantasy listening 🔰😡

Thirty will written fantasy Sci-Fi thriller adventures by Robert D. San Souci about horror and ghost 👻 short stories from all over the world 🌎. I would recommend this novel to anyone who reads fantasy Sci-Fi horror. Enjoy the adventure of reading 👓 or listening 🎶 to all kinds of novels 👍🔰🏡😇 2022😠

[Kathryn Grace Loves Horror · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reread this favorite from my childhood. This series was my introduction to so many ghost stories and scary legends. Still an entertaining reread as an adult, with The New Mother and Old Raw Head being particular favorites.

[Shamima · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last book in the trilogy. I bought it on my birthday and am just now finishing it. The writing style and pictures are very nostalgic to my childhood (back when Goosebumps books and scary stories were the rage). As do the other 2 books in the trilogy, this one features 45 scary short stories from around the world.

[Franz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about 45 mysterious stories from around the world. I thought that the stories in this book were going to be stories that little kids would read but they were better than expected. This book was good because it had scary stories from around the world and I recommend this book to people who like weird and scary books.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was a kid, this was my true introductory to horror stories and folktales. Had some favorites on here, even the less "horror" stories were still memorable, and the illustrations are eye-catching. Re-reading this was a real blast!

[Sara Coley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did not disappoint!

Great collection of stories. They still hold up after all these years. Great for spooky vibes. I like to read these at least once a year.

[Kristina Bustos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love every story there is. I'm a sucker for short horror stories and this did not disappoint.

[Deborah Yancey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grew up reading these stories, so entertaining!

[Wade Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a disclaimer, I have to mention that the Scary Stories books by Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell were highly influential during my childhood; they basically shaped my entire understanding of death and the paranormal, and, in many ways, the concept of religious beliefs as they relate to such things. Needless to say, they are my #1 favorite collection of creepy tales, and always will be.

However, I also had two of the three Short and Shivery books in middle school, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. This particular copy I only owned for a short time before I lost it somehow; that I ever owned it at all became a fever memory of sorts, and it wasn't until I came across it at a thrift store recently that I wondered why it was familiar. Reading it brought everything back to me, as I remembered some of the stories. Weird how our memories work!

Still don't know what happened to my original copy, but this was fun to pick up again. Great for all the kids like me who were a little weird and drawn to the strange and macbre.

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert D. San Souci continues to pull more obscure, and often weirder, tales from his folklore exploration for the "Short and Shivery" collection. I didn't have the third and fourth volume when I was a kid, so there are some folk stories and legends I don't remember with nostalgic fondness. This doesn't mean they aren't good; "This I see, but this I sew" is a great British oddity, and the obligatory urban legend retold as a full short story near the end of the book is as good as usual.

[Adrian Gazaway · Rating 1 out of 5]

Imagine if you were at a shooting range and were given 45 rounds of ammunition and a paper target. You don't have to hit the bullseye, but you should at least aim and hit somewhere on the target. Instead, you are so inept that 43 of your shots miss the target entirely. An absurd and embarrassing scenario, right? Well, metaphorically, that's exactly what San Souci has done in this mostly boring anthology. Even if they were all good, 45 stories is way too many and makes this feel exhausting.

[Father Longlegs · Rating 5 out of 5]

still awesome

I used to read the Short and Shiverys when I was younger. I’ve been trying to find and re-read all of my childhood favorites, and was super psyched to find these on kindle. These are still awesome, stories are easy to read but still remain spoopy, and I enjoyed them immensely as a 30 year old lady.

[Joshua Hubbard · Rating 3 out of 5]

7.0/10 These are fun spooky szn stories, most of them aren’t longer than 4 pages but I enjoy the fact that they are cultural tales from different countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. This is a classic from my childhood we would read so I have definitive nostalgic bias for these stories as well.

[Amanda Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

These were so awesome to listen to on the audio book with my kids! We all loved the creepy stories and the narrators enthusiasm in telling the stories! We will definitely be finding some more to listen to together this summer!

[John Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some creepy and tension building short stories from around the world! Even though a few outcomes were perdictable they still end just a bit jarringly different than expected.Every little story in here was pleasantly unsettling but good innocent fun.

[Elizabeth Coy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve had this book on my shelf for years. It was one of my favorite books of ghost stories when I was in middle and high school. The stories are nice and short, but still scary. I love that they are stories from all around the world.

[Stacy Simpson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well this book ended on a decent note. I was dissatisfied with the majority of the stories however he did save the best for last.

I wouldn’t say don’t read it but if you can make it thru the boring part it with please you at the end.

[Bruja Lectora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente recopilación de cuentos, cortos y sencillos pero de diferentes partes del mundo. Se leen rápido e igual se disfrutan.

[Erin Newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun but not very scary collection of tales.

[Edmond · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good scare

This is a really good scare. The stories are short and sweet. And simple. This is a great read for folklore too.

[N · Rating 2 out of 5]

When skimming this collection in preparation for a school visit, I could only find one story that I liked enough to tell- The New Mother which was originally written by Lucy Lane Clifford in 1882. It really shook the group of tweens who were my audience. They were bone quiet for it's entirety and looked seriously creeped out afterward. I just researched the story a bit and see that it was a main influence of Neil Gaiman in writing Coraline! Which makes sense because it's one of the eeriest books I've ever read and I'm a grown-up.

The rest of the collection fell flat for me. But that one story is a gem.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfamiliar ghost stories from around the world abound in this collection, each with its own grim allure. There are stories of people falling prey to demons, cannibal ghosts, pale dancing spirits (in a sequence that reads eerily like a scene from “Carnival of Souls” [1962]) and many more. Accompanied by evocative illustrations in black, white and gray, the stories span the gamut from terrifying to sad, supernatural and the real. These stories may not scare the adults, but they are suitable for any young adult who likes a bit of horror before bedtime.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of 'scary' stories. Obviously it's for kids, so the complexity of the writing isn't very high for adults, but the stories themselves are still fun to read. What I really enjoyed as an adult was the notes at the end that give a brief blurb on the origins of the stories. Gleaned from all over the world, it's a fun little cultural jaunt.

Some of the stories still really hold my interest, some are mostly fun in a nostalgic sort of way, but overall this is still a great book.

[Amelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that "Even More Short & Shivery: Forty-Five Spine-Tingling Tales. (Paperback) is a great book for middle schooler's. This book is good because of it's short story quality. I would recommend this book to almost any one. 4 stars! All the stories are non-fiction so it's weird to think these spine tingleing tales are true. i had a great time reading these short stories and can't wait to check out the next book out!

[Matt Mazenauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert D. Souci is a crap writer who has decided to take a lot of classic fables and folklores and retell them in his own dull plain cheesy style. Luckily, even through the meatgrinder that is his writing style, some are cool myths.

[Subrina Rafiq · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is great but very strange. You will never guess what story your going to read next. But be aware of the illustrators details it might even scare you! It went from half women half deer to elf flowers. What is going to happen in the next book

[Araceli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Still dissapointing, though I do know a few people that I can freak out with some of these stories