Looking for spooky illustrated kids short storybook from the 80's

July 25, 2022 3:06 PM

And it's not Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, but I do love that as well! The book is illustrated with black and white pencil drawings (one per story) that are as "realistic" as they can be given the subject matter.

As, far as I know it's a single hardcover book, not a trilogy. The one story that stands out most to me is a story about a monster that eats kids and "he's waiting for you" and the illustration is a monster (that looks kinda like Nosferatu) sitting on the top of a jungle gym in an empty playground with a grey sky behind them. I loved this book a lot and my mother used to read it to her Cub Scouts every Halloween (she's long passed or I would ask her).

Thanks for any guidance!

posted by Asbestos McPinto to Media & Arts (2 answers total)

Best answer: The line "he's waiting for you" sparked a memory for me and after some googling I came up with Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep, by Jack Prelutsky. The image of the monster you recall seems to match the one from The Gruesome Ghoul.

During the 1980s, the place where I grew up in California had non-optional participation in the "Oral Language Festival" as part of the 5th-8th grade English. Most of my peers absolutely hated this requirement--which involved individual or group public speaking--and we tried to find poems to memorize that were as short as possible to get a decent grade. I'm somewhat amazed that enough of The Bogeyman was still in my brain to give an attempted answer to this question. Not sure if that was the ultimate intent of the assignment, but maybe it's what you are looking for.
posted by El_Marto at 4:31 PM on July 25, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: El_Marto, THAT'S IT!!! Thanks!
posted by Asbestos McPinto at 4:41 PM on July 25, 2022