Frightmares by Michael Dahl is a collection of 27 scary short stories. The stories are all different and are moderately scary. This means that they are scary enough to surprise you and scare you a bit but not scary enough to keep you awake at night or to give you nightmares. Mr. Dahl tries to make the reader feel like they are in the stories and he does a pretty good job at that. One of the ways that he does this is that the stories are mostly made up of events and situations that are pretty common so you are familiar with them. So there are no graveyards at midnight or haunted castles.

“The flashlight guy snorts. ‘You don’t get it,’ he says, “This ain’t anybody’s bed. I don’t know what it is, but it ain’t a bed. ‘We’ve been trying to find a way out since lat night,’ says a kid in back. ‘Since two night ago!’ says another.”

The stories are mostly set in just your home or neighborhood or other familiar places and include unexpected twists and turns. This book would be good for kids who do not scare too easily ages 8 to 11 who like scary stories.

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