Super Scary Stories for Sleep-Overs

Scary Stories for Sleep-overs #5

by Q.L. Pearce, Dwight Been (Illustrator)

Is that the Mountain Bay Monster torpedoing towards Greg's boat? Who is that odd woman at the scene of every disaster? And will Gideon--thrust into the past--be able to defeat the knight galloping toward him? If you're ready for the terrifying answers, then Super Scary Stories for Sleep-Overs is for you!

With a rejuvenated mummy, a half-tiger half-human boy, and an amazing alien cat, each terrorizing tale in Super Scary Stories for Sleep-Overs offers a chill a minute.

So make your next slumber party petrifying and your next campout the creepiest. . . or muster up the courage to read Super Scary Stories for Sleep-Overs alone!

Genres: Horror, Childrens, Fiction, Short Stories, Paranormal

128 pages, Paperback

First published August 24, 1995

About the author

Best selling author and expert on all things that go bump in the night, Q. L. Pearce began her career as a writer and editor in 1985 with Lowell House / Roxbury Press in Los Angeles. She has since written more than one hundred and twenty books for children, including eight collections of scary stories for middle grade and film tie-in books for the Fox animated film Titan AE and the Universal animated series Land Before Time. Q believes strongly in the value of scary books for young readers. When asked what credentials she has which qualify her as an expert in this area she replies, "I was a child once. That was very scary."

Reviews

[Austin Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one much more than the first book in the series - I guess it is called SUPER Scary Stories for Sleep-Overs 👻

[Tiyahna Ridley-Padmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super Scary Stories for Sleep-Overs contains a collection of creepy and easy to read short stories for young readers who enjoy horror. Each text includes some pretty spooky illustrations in Black and White which helps add to the scare-factor.

I would read these as a child and would zip through them in no time, always wanting more.

[Simone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I looooved this series as a kid, and they're still pretty good as an adult. The endings are pretty dark, which I think is part of what made them so great - and different from a lot of scary stories for kids.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love scary kid stories! This one was pretty dang creepy. I will read it to my nieces and nephews. Muahahahahahha.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading middle grade spooky story collections. Reminds me of the days when I was in school and made a book order every fall filled with all sorts of Spooky Season reads! It seemed to take forever for the order to arrive! And, when it did I raced home and got right to reading all the awesome spooktastic stories!

Now several decades later I still get really excited when I find these out of print books at the used bookstore, thrift shop, garage sales or online. Some I recognize as ones I used to have back in the day! And I find similar books on the shelf at my local library as well! Always entertaining and fun to read. Scary but yet mostly tame. No spurting blood or adult themes to make me lay awake thinking about the gruesome stuff I just read. Just enjoyable spooky fun stories. :)

This book fits in that category perfectly. 11 spooky stories that are age appropriate for middle grade readers. The stories are relatively short. Perfect read-aloud length or for bedtime stories, sleep-overs, camping out, etc.

The stories are varied with everything from mummies and lake monsters to a creepy cave or a scary circus. There's something for everyone! :) The illustrations are black and white and very well done.

All in all, an entertaining collection of stories! There are several of these books in a series. I'm definitely going to read the rest!

[Jeremy Maddux · Rating 2 out of 5]

Doesn't hold a candle to the original books by Alvin Schwartz.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun outing of scary YA stories.

[Ditseeey · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Mike MacDee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would put this volume on par with the previous one, though these stories tend to be a bit more unnerving as far as ideas and settings go.


The first noteworthy tale is "The Room at the End of the Hall", a suitably disturbing "vanishing family member" story akin to an episode of The Twilight Zone.

"It Waits" is like a kids' version of Stephen King's "The Raft", minus the lengthy, gratuitous gore.

"Cave Dwellers" is another favorite. Getting lost in dark, eerie, claustrophobic caves is unsettling enough until the protagonists stumble into the lair of an invisible coven of monsters.

"A Dead Man's Chest" has one of the freakiest illustrations in the series, and a delightfully chilling ending, if totally predictable. Has shades of John Carpenter's "The Fog," which is appropriate since that film was a tribute to these kinds of spooky stories.

"The Hole in the Ceiling," if expanded upon, would've made for an interesting and even touching story about a family raising an alien baby. It comes off only as a weird, neat tale, but memorable nonetheless.

"A Face in the Crowd" is a rather shockingly nihilistic and dark one, even for this series. Nobody can escape Death, not even a hapless thirteen-year-old girl.


Again, since the books are aimed at a younger demographic, the scares are likely going to be lost on adult readers. As a kid, many of these freaked me out pretty good, and it'd be fun to do my own, more fleshed out takes on some of them someday...if I ever catch the horror bug again.

[Siskiyou-Suzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book contains a story that has haunted me for much of my life. It scared the crap out of me when I was a kid; it hurt my heart to think about. It's The Room At the End of the Hall.

Most of the stories in this book are meh -- not really frightening and far too heavy on the supernatural aspect. One of my favorites was the one with the girl who stole the magic spray -- it hurt my heart to think about her accidentally spraying her dog and having it disappear. If the story had ended there, it would have been another one to haunt me, I think.

[Lyndsay-ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book when it was first published and I've probably read it about a dozen times. It is in aweful shape, which is surprising for one of my books.

The stories in this book are supposed to be 'scary' and maybe are for kids, but they are greatly entertaining and so silly, with everything from ghosts to sea monsters.

[Partridge Public]

Pearce, Q.L. PB

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that it was really good even though it wasn't that scary. I still really liked it.
I thought that the stories were really good.

[Daniel2 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Old Children's Book. Liked it as a kid, but haven't read it in years.