Who remembers this series of books? Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark were essential for slumber parties and campfires.
The stories were not much more than urban legends updated for a middle school audience. They are typical tales of scary hitchhikers, weird neighbors and ghostly grandmothers. What was really frightening were the amazing black and white drawings. Pen and ink and watercolor, they were both realistic and spindly.
They made your skin crawl just by looking, so much so that the less brave among the sleepover would refuse to even touch the page to turn it, afraid that the spider might leap of the paper and embed itself under YOUR skin.
Even the funny stories, included for comedic relief had funny illustrations.
I owned all three of the books in the series at the time and loved reading them by flashlight in my blanket fort.
You can read most of them here.