Haunted Houses

by Robert D. San Souci, Kelly Murphy (Illustrator), Antoine Revoy (Illustrator)

Scare-master Robert San Souci serves up ten chilling tales about untraditional haunted houses: a mansion full of pirate treasure, a ghost trapped in a mysterious dollhouse, a boy whose vacation house comes complete with people-eating spiders, and many more. But beware because not all of the protagonists in these stories get out alive.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Middle Grade, Fiction, Childrens, Paranormal, Mystery

288 pages, Hardcover

First published July 14, 2010

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

[Austin Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐

This was such a fun collection of short horror stories, with one of them, 'Many', being perhaps the darkest and scariest "kids" short horror story I have ever read.
Almost every story in here was enjoyable to some degree, with 'The Lodge' being the only semi-weak story, as it felt like a more generic and basic kind of ghost story.

[Sara Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a new series by Robert D. San Souci. I picked it because it's a collection of scary short stories which is what my son likes best. However, the book sat there for a couple of weeks so I thought someone should read it. The book has 10 short scary stories all centered around houses - even though with some of the stories it's a stretch. They were all well written with a good combination of fright and relief so that even the youngest reader won't have nightmares. Not all of the stories have a happy ending though and that made for a good mix. The book is considered middle grade (4th-7th) but has a simple enough style that a younger reader could read the book. It's not a short book at nearly 300 pages but it is broken into 10 stories so no one tires. I am interested in seeing where the author is going to go with the series. I was not familiar with him but it seems he quite a selection of scary stories. I did attempt some reading outloud to my son and found it worked well except my son didn't come across as that interested but then we were in the doctor's office.
One thing I really appreciated about the book was the diversity of the characters. It seemed that the author managed to touch on all the "major" cultures. I was rather impressed that he didn't fall into casual stereotypes either. This could be a good classroom story book with some follow up on cultural ghost stories - The Tea House being a good crossover story since it touches on some asian folklore. All in all I consider this a good read and for those adults out there who disagree, remember it was written for children so get over it.

[daysi · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was really interesting and mysterious. I really enjoyed this book because its not just one whole story its many different stories.

[Kacey Laine · Rating 5 out of 5]

These Spooky Short Stories did not disappoint!

[SarahC · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection of ghost stories. My favorite one was about this little boy who had gotten lost in a forest. His mom had gone crazy after he did not turn up, and ended up in an insane asylum. One day she escaped, and the townspeople would here her yelling for her son in the woods, but she was never seen again. Then, Valerie (the main character) finds the little boy's skeleton and reunites the mother's ghost with the child's ghost. It was a ghost story that was actually sort of beautiful as much as it was creepy crawly.

[Kevin Bunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book that I am reading is a book with different kind of story’s/tales.I love this book because it gives spooky tales that ms.rivas have gave me.I really enjoyed this book because it’s not to scary but it’s spooky and fun to read! This book is a fantasy book that I recommend you to read.i really think you should read this and be sure this and be sure not to be scared!

[Brittany Hopkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book seriously creeped me out. They aren’t too scary but they are definitely spooky and creepy.

[Crystal M · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only thing I didn't like was that 2 of the stories had dogs that died in them. It wasn't graphic or anything, just sad. So reader beware!

[Allison Brogden · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the tales weird or scary. And sometimes both. I am in my late twenties.

[Viola · Rating 5 out of 5]

best stories ever it gave me some chill.

[Mary Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

It isn’t often that I recommend a book that I haven’t read in its entirety, but I am – I admit it – a scaredy cat! You see, I started this collection, but I just couldn't finish it. And now, I can’t stop thinking about San Souci's creepy stories.


You’ll find ten tales of haunted houses in this collection by Robert San Souci, one of San Francisco’s great storytellers and folklore collectors. In one story, a boy’s family is vacationing in a house that is taken over by spiders. Now, these aren’t your typical garden spiders. They are spiders who want revenge for the damages done to their forest and homes. Danny starts to get worried when he finds the rabbit cage filled with spider webs, and then realizes that the bundles in the corner are the dead rabbits encased in spider webs. The story proceeds to even creepier, as Danny discovers more ways the spiders have wrecked damage on previous owners of the house. Needless to say, every time I walk into a spider’s web now, I jump even higher.


These stories are not for the faint-hearted or those prone to nightmares, but for kids looking for spine-tingling tales, this is your perfect find.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah, it's a kid's book -- but wow, these are fairly intense! Kids and pets bite the dust in a number of the tales. Definitely stronger stuff than San Souci's "Short and Shivery" series -- but fine for kids 11 or so who are fairly jaded about bunnies being sucked dry by giant spiders. San Souci writes pretty well and it's a fun collection of riffs on the haunted-house theme -- haunted doll house, haunted dog house, haunted walk-though "haunted house" attraction ... a couple of stories borrow very liberally from J-horror film conventions, to the point that one ghost is described as moving "like a Youtube video when it stutters," or words to that effect. Yes, Mr. San Souci, I've seen "Ringu" too.

Quibble aside, great for brave kids and nostalgic adults who still love a good ghost story. And there's none of that "it wasn't really a ghost" nonsense!

[Meredith Schindehette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this anthology on the recommendation of my 11yo. It's aimed at middle-grade readers and includes some decent horror stories - ones that kids can retell on their own fairly easily to spook their friends. In that regard, I think the book does its job well. In a few cases, though, I felt like some of the stories could have been developed further and were cut short. Also, at random times, certain words seemed too sophisticated for the level of the book, so they jolted me out of the stories when I read them. Overall, the book is a quick read and provides good fodder for telling 'ghost' stories around a campfire. (Note: this is a book of horror stories, so it does contain murders, ghosts, ghouls, etc.)

[Angela Liao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haunted Houses is a great book. The pictures inspired me to read the book. I liked almost every ten scary stories in the book. At first when I started reading the book I thought it was childish and not scary at all, but as I read on I found it pretty good. I found some parts very funny too! The spiders that eats people really creeped me out. My favorite story was the ghost who was trying to find her husband. I was glad the kids helped her find her husband--otherwise they wouldn't have been able to get out of the haunted house! I liked how some of the endings of the book didn't show what happen to the main character. I wondered what happen to them?

[Matt Glaviano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some decent stories in here, and a couple of surprises. The read itself feels a bit dated. There's a fair amount of cultural appropriation and some gender stereotyping throughout, which makes me a bit hesitant to recommend to patrons. Horror depends so heavily on cultural tropes and mores -- I get that, and some of the stereotyping is used to that end; equivalent to the Indian Burial Ground.

I've read better collections this month I'm more likely to recommend, though I imagine the basic structure of some of these stories might stick with me and get reinvented...

[Becca · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay, I didn't really like it, but I didn't really hate it. I thought that sometimes the book was kind of bizarre, and I like it when the scary stories are just scary. I also didn't like how a lot of stories were just plain creepy! I don't to read books that give me the chills, I know that lots of people like scary and creepy together, but night me it was just too scary and weird. So overall I gave San Souci's collection of short stories a 2 out 5.

[Carolina Colleene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Language - G, Sexual Content - G; Violence - PG
This book is a collection of ten scary stories that are campfire worthy. Ghosts galore and various kinds of endings keeps readers entertained, scared, and always guessing--myself included. I liked all of them except Webs because it only encouraged my arachnophobia. My favorite was The Lodge because it wasn't anything like my predictions and it had a good resolution.
Reviewed for https://kissthebook.blogspot.com/

[Esmeralda Vela · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my opinion "Haunted House" is a good book because I loved it.I would recommend this book to all the people who love nail biting scary stories and if you don't like scary stories then I won't recommend it to you.If this book was on series I would read all the series.This writing is really powerful I like how the author adds details.I love all of it and I hope you will too.I hope you will enjoy this book as much as I did.But you can't love it as much as me.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and in my opinion scary! I would read before bed and be a little uneasy.My students promise me they can handle it so I'm putting in the collection. Maybe I'll only let 4th and 5th graders take it out and give a warning. We have 3 other books in the library that seem similarly scary and the kids don't seem upset so we'll see. If you are looking for a fight I recommend this one, for grown ups too!

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did like it, maybe if I could, I could give it 3.5 stars. This was a fun collection of kid's ghost stories. A lot of them were creative twists on old classics. Some felt like new urban legends for the current elementary generation. My kids liked them, too, though they were genuinely creeped out by some. (Technically, I didn't give them permission to read it, but they did anyway.)

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really unimpressive, and the dialogue was absolutely ridiculous. Summary: 10 short stories. Someone dies in every story. That's it. Only recommended to die-hard "scary stories" fans who have run out of other reading material.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good collection of spooky stories. My favorite (and one I read aloud to my 5th/6th graders) is The Lodge. A nice ghost story that sends chills up their spines, but isn't gory or gross, and ends happily.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

it took me far too long to read this book, every new story i had to be connected to the characters again and i still felt like something was missing. Great shortish stories but if you're someone who needs to be connected, it'll take you awhile to finish reading this

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

San Souci has perfected the scary story. These were some of the best I've read. Perfect for read-alouds. Kids should love them. I also enjoyed the diversity of characters and setting.

[Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book.

[Harla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only read first two stories. They were okay...not my cup of tea.

[Alessia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh

[Jamie Wyatt Glover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good collection of interesting and original spooky stories aimed towards kids. None of them scared me, but I enjoyed them anyways!

[Zoe]

Really good. Some of the stories are truly scarry.

[Marley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really actually get through the whole book. I read three stories, none of them scary, and it was soooo boring. I decided to stop reading.