What's the name of this very scary picture book from the 80s or 90s?
February 11, 2011 4:44 PM Subscribe
Does anyone have any idea what 1980s or 1990s children's picture book this was? (very scary, about monsters).
I remember coming across a hardcover picture book sometime between the years 1990 and 1996 (so it might've been published in the late 1970s through the early 1990s) that was full color, with a lot of dark blue and black inked illustrations. Kind of in the spirit of Dirk Zimmer, but it wasn't him. It was about a boy who leaves his house and goes out at night, only to meet a whole lot of pretty scary (not cartoony scary) monsters --- at some point he's fleeing, there's a double page spread of a flock of monsters chasing him - and at another point, they talk about turning him into a spider (you see his human head, horrified, on a spider's body) - then he's given a wish and he wishes to be grown up, at home, a grandfather, telling this story to his grandkids, and he is.
No real surprise why this one didn't become a classic, but it's been nagging at the back of my head for a while. Does anyone know what this picture book might be? thanks.
I remember coming across a hardcover picture book sometime between the years 1990 and 1996 (so it might've been published in the late 1970s through the early 1990s) that was full color, with a lot of dark blue and black inked illustrations. Kind of in the spirit of Dirk Zimmer, but it wasn't him. It was about a boy who leaves his house and goes out at night, only to meet a whole lot of pretty scary (not cartoony scary) monsters --- at some point he's fleeing, there's a double page spread of a flock of monsters chasing him - and at another point, they talk about turning him into a spider (you see his human head, horrified, on a spider's body) - then he's given a wish and he wishes to be grown up, at home, a grandfather, telling this story to his grandkids, and he is.
No real surprise why this one didn't become a classic, but it's been nagging at the back of my head for a while. Does anyone know what this picture book might be? thanks.
Here's the pic of the boy turned into a spider.
posted by amyms at 5:40 PM on February 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by amyms at 5:40 PM on February 11, 2011 [1 favorite]
Oh wow, Grandpa's Ghost Stories. It's always a weird feeling when I look at children's books and suddenly REMEMBER them, even though I hadn't remembered forgetting them. The wolf belly with a gland for growls? And that house with teeth? I remember those.. weird.
posted by some chick at 8:20 PM on February 11, 2011
posted by some chick at 8:20 PM on February 11, 2011
Response by poster: It was Grandpa's Ghost Stories! and thanks for suggesting The Dwindling Party - I've never seen it before, but now I want to check it out.
That's incredible! I forgot about the flying severed hand!
thank you so much!
posted by Geameade at 12:52 PM on February 12, 2011
That's incredible! I forgot about the flying severed hand!
thank you so much!
posted by Geameade at 12:52 PM on February 12, 2011
Response by poster: a banshee band playing music that sounds like truck brakes. what a unique book.
posted by Geameade at 1:11 PM on February 12, 2011
posted by Geameade at 1:11 PM on February 12, 2011
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posted by NoraReed at 5:37 PM on February 11, 2011