Half-Minute Horrors - Softcover

Rich, Susan; Various

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061833819 ISBN 13: 9780061833816

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2011

Synopsis

How scared can you get in just thirty seconds?

Dive into the shortest, scariest stories ever created, with more than seventy instant thrills from the likes of Lemony Snicket, James Patterson, Neil Gaiman, R.L. Stine, Holly Black, Brett Helquist, and Margaret Atwood. You’ll never look at your closet door, your cat, your sock drawer, or even yourself in the mirror the same way again!

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Book Description

How scared can you get in only 30 seconds? Dare to find out with Half-Minute Horrors, a collection of deliciously terrifying short short tales and creepy illustrations by an exceptional selection of writers and illustrators, including bestselling talents Lemony Snicket, James Patterson, Neil Gaiman, R.L.Stine, Faye Kellerman, Holly Black, Melissa Marr, Margaret Atwood, Jon Scieszka, Brett Helquist, and many more. With royalties benefiting First Book, a not-for-profit organization that brings books to children in need, this is an anthology worth devouring. So grab a flashlight, set the timer, and get ready for instant chills!

Excerpts from Half-Minute Horrors

"Something You Ought to Know" by Lemony Snicket “The right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing” is a phrase that refers to times when people ought to know, but don’t know, about something that is happening very close to them. For instance, you ought to know about the man who watches you when you sleep. He is a quiet man, which is why you don’t know about him. You don’t know how he gets into your home, or how he finds his way to the room in which you sleep. You don’t know how he can stare at you so long without blinking, and you don’t know how he manages to be gone by morning, without a trace, and you don’t know where he purchased the long, sharp knife, curved like a crescent moon, that he holds in his left hand, sometimes just millimeters from your eyes, which are closed and flickering in dreams. Continue reading "Something You Ought to Know"

"The Creeping Hand" by Margaret Atwood The hand crept up the cellar stairs. It was shriveled and dirty, and its fingernails were long. It scuttled along the dark hallway. At the closed door it sniffed with its fingertips, then jumped up like a giant spider, grabbed the doorknob, and turned. Inside the room it found a sock. Then a shoe. And then--another hand, hanging down from the bed. A young hand, a hand that it could kidnap and take away down to the cellar. But this hand was attached to an arm. Something could be done about that.

"The Legend of Alexandra & Rose" by Jon Klassen See the full image

"Worms" by Lane Smith See the full image

About the Author:

Susan Rich has edited a frightening number of books, including those in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Gloria Whelan's National Book Award–winning Homeless Bird, and the series Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures. Born in Winnipeg, she attended McGill University in Montreal and received her master's degree in children's literature from Simmons College in Boston. She has haunted old publishing houses in New York and then Toronto, where she now lives with her devilish husband and ghastly children.

HarperCollins Publishers is a proud supporter of First Book, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their own new books. The primary goal of First Book is to work with existing literacy programs to distribute new books to children who, for economic reasons, have little or no access to books. In this way, First Book effectively leverages the heroic efforts of local tutoring, mentoring, and family literacy organizations as they work to reach children who need help the most. First Book distributes millions of books to hundreds of thousands of children nationwide each year. For more information on First Book, please visit www.firstbook.org.

HarperCollins Publishers is a proud supporter of First Book, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their own new books. The primary goal of First Book is to work with existing literacy programs to distribute new books to children who, for economic reasons, have little or no access to books. In this way, First Book effectively leverages the heroic efforts of local tutoring, mentoring, and family literacy organizations as they work to reach children who need help the most. First Book distributes millions of books to hundreds of thousands of children nationwide each year. For more information on First Book, please visit www.firstbook.org.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0061833819
• ISBN 13: 9780061833816
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160
• Illustrator: Various