WHY SHOULD CHILDREN READ SCARY STORIES?

(From Spooky Ohio: 13 Traditional Tales)

In a world full of real-life horrors, ghost stories are a constant favorite. When children are exposed to so much violence in video games, movies and TV, why should they read scary stories?

1. Ghost stories draw in the most reluctant readers. Librarians constantly tell me that they can’t keep ghost stories on the shelves. Roberta Simpson Brown, storyteller, teacher, and "The Queen of the Cold-Blooded Tales," says that spooky tales get her students’ attention better than anything else she’s tried.
2. Ghost stories often help children confront and conquer their fears. The world can be a frightening place, but the "delicious shivers" generated by a spooky story are very different from the scary real violence on the evening news. And a ghost tale may provide a safe framework for working out those real fears. As a child, I constantly terrified myself with ghost stories, yet there was something exhilarating in finding myself still alive the next morning! It is important for a child to realize that he can be frightened and still survive.
3. Ghost stories are a way to scare ourselves silly—safely—like riding the roller-coaster at the amusement park. Most ghost stories, particularly the traditional ones, follow predictable paths. This is comforting to the reader.
4. Traditional ghost stories can be a window onto a different world—the world of the past—where people wear different clothes, eat different foods, use different words. And yet it is a world where some things—fear and greed, love and longing—never change. For some children, this may be their only way to connect with history.
5. Ghost stories may even probe the eternal mysteries of life and death and, for older children, suggest some important questions for discussion.
6. Most importantly—ghost stories are just plain fun!

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