Creepy Books from Childhood

Did you read a book as a child that creeped you out either for good reason or none at all? A book I read as a kid came to mind a little bit ago and I did a search to find it. It was called The Juniper Games. The book was not necessarily scary, though it was about ESP and witch craft. I don't remember too many details about the book, I just remember there seemed to be a creepy undertone. I felt weird when I would read it, and I got rid of it when I was done with it. I didn't even like looking at the cover, really. It is funny, but anytime I hear the word juniper my mind goes to that book and I get an eerie feeling.
Link to Book

Just curious if there was a book you read as a child that gave you a weird feeling for no real reason.

reply to post by tport17

Just curious if there was a book you read as a child that gave you a weird feeling for no real reason.

Catcher in the Rye

Not scary just a bit weird with a creepy vibe

Equus

Just plain perverted

The creepy cat Dr Suess used to creep me out as soon as I opened the cover.

For some strange reason I couldn't even look at him......Nasty Cat!

I found Pinocchio to be very disturbing.

I had a picture book that had scary pictues for the 'Pleasure Island' part.




Edit-How could anyone find Catcher In The Rye "creepy". That book always makes me feel better. Franny and Zooey is more positive I guess.

But Catcher in the Rye "creepy"? It gives me relief.

reply to post by Germanicus


Ha! Pinochio always scared me too. Something about turning bad kids into donkeys I guess.

The Last Children of Schewenborn from Gudrun Pausewang. We had to read that as a school assignment.
It's about a nuclear attack on Germany (or the whole world, it's never said if it was just on Germany or a nuclear world war). It's about a 12 year old boy and his family travelling to their grandparents, when the attack happened. They didn't know what happened but soon find out and then live near Fulda in a nuclear wasteland. The book goes into great detail about diseases from radiation and malformed children that are born afterwards and just the helplesness of the people.
It freaked me out completely and for a few weeks afterwards i always had that feeling that a nuclear attack could happen any minute.

And of course "Struwwelpeter", it's a collection of illustrated short stories and they are disturbing, made worse by the picture, like the Boy who always sucks his thumb, then a tailor comes around and cuts the boy's thumbs off with a scissor. They showed it as a picture complete with blood. Another story is about a girl who plays with matches - in the end she burns to death because of it.
I guess in some way that book was created to teach Children not to play with Fire, not to play with Guns, don't do 'bad things' but with the illustrations it just becomes a very creepy book.

Max and Moritz, though i think this was written for adults as it features really black humour. Nonetheless it's popular here in Germany to give that book to children. Max and Moritz are two kids who play pranks, in the beginning it's harmless stuff like stealing roasted chicken. Later the pranks become more violent and black humor takes over. In the end they both die a gruesome death at a mill, as they are ground to pieces and eaten by ducks.

Looking at it, i think our german writers overall wrote some of the most horrific, creepy stories for Children. Brothers Grimm and their storlies like The Pied Piper of Hamelin or Hansel and Gretel are a good example.

not that creepy but this was my favourite childrens book because of it's weirdnes.
The Stinky Cheese Man and other fairly Stupid Tales

reply to post by tport17


"Monster Tales: Vampires, Werewolves, and Things"
Read this several times in the third grade back in the 70's and it freaked me out, especially the story "Wendigo's Child". Really creepy illustrations.
Looking back on it, I think it was a pretty twisted thing to have available in a public school library.

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