Zak Bellingham’s Be Afraid… A Little Book of Strange & Scary Stories for Kids (2023) is a writing that hopefully does not get misinterpreted by the title for newer readers discovering the work.
The writing is the first in a series of books that are assumed to be “scary” horror tales geared for children. There are a total of 14 short stories in the book, which cover young children facing their fears, with several strange characters such as aliens, monsters, giant animals, and more enhancing the “fear factor.”
The first story, titled “The Fear Feeder,” has a shadow monster, while other stories involve popcorn turning into animals, a girl who can fly over witches at the bottom of her stares, several dreams that children have, and even a fairy-tale theme that involves rotten apples.
The reason why I use the quotations besides “scary” is because the tales may be a little spooky for younger readers, with the added illustrations by EJ Rowland, but there is more than trying to spook out the readers wanting some campfire tales to share with their friends. Most of the stories have a lesson involved in them at the end, such as facing fears, getting confidence in real life when dealing with friends when at first being shy, to feeling guilty about taking something without asking permission first. Other topics are dealing with bullies, comforting children that it’s alright to be sad, and how to handle too much social media time. These lessons are wonderful for the children to learn, as well as parents to discuss while they are reading the tales as well which is a modern-day version of Aesop’s Fables added in with the themes of the unknown and mystery, suspense, and horror mix.
Be Afraid isn’t the normal chilling young reader books that the cover may at first project, but one that gives wonderful life lessons in several of the stories (not all of them have a moral or lesson, and are just plain fun to read). The very last story gives a full circle to the beginning of the book (NO SPOILERS!), which also was a nice surprise way to end. All ages of readers from early readers to adults will find something enjoyable in this first of the series which will not only give the younger readers encouragement and hope at times without coming off as cheesy, but also a good discussion base for the adults to interact with them.
Be Afraid… A Little Book of Strange & Scary Stories for Kids by Zak Bellingham with Illustrator EJ Rowland (2023) can be ordered at Amazon.com
For information on the author, visit: http://www.authorzakbellingham.com
The Overall: Pages: 110 Language: None Geared For: 7 and Up For Fans Of: Young Readers, Fiction, Supernatural, Horror, Fables.
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Lance Lumley’s novella The Cassette is available at Amazon.
lancewrites: Reviews By Lance Lumley 