Spooky Stories

Autumn has arrived and for those of us who work with the under 18-years-old crowd, October is all about Halloween and having scary, candy-obsessed fun. At the Southside Library every Thursday afternoon there is a Teen program from 4:30-5:30 pm. The first Thursday of the month is the Teen Book Club.

In honor of scary fun, the teens spent most of the meeting creating their own short horror story. The teens’ read a few examples from the short story collection Half Minute Horrors, edited by Susan Rich, to jump start their creative thinking. The stories in this collection are a maximum of two pages long. The story, “An Easy Gig” by M.T. Anderson received the highest gross out rating but I’m not certain if that is due to the horrendous nature of the crime or the fact that the guilty parents framed an innocent teen for said crime.

Jon Klassen’s “The Legend of Alexandra & Rose” was the most influential story for our group. This story is a single image with a legend describing the locations of events. Through these legend descriptions a terrible crime and petty motivation are elegantly revealed. Klassen’s story inspired many of our participants to draw their own tale of murder and mayhem. Enjoy the original art created by one of our Southside teen participants. While you can’t read an entire story in this image, it does convey the malicious glee of a successful “trick”.



by AB @SS