Tales for the Midnight Hour: Stories of Horror

That was my reaction when I first read these stories when I was younger. I thought that the first one (The Furry Collar, I believe it was called) made me shiver and made me come up with some good ideas for stories of my own. I think that overall these stories are quite good, but they apply for much younger readers. Not for teenagers who are sooooo over this kind of children's stuff. =)

This collection of scary stories appeals mostly to the very young reader. Each story is quite short and simple. The typical story has a short build-up with a simple shock ending like "there was a skeleton at the door." Stories lack the resolutions older or more accomplished readers will want but for the style they are really rather entertaining.

The stories range widely in their focus. The reader meets monsters, vampires, witches, bad fortunes and all manner of scary thing.

This is the first in a series. It has also been collected with the second volume (MORE TALES FOR THE MIDNIGHT HOUR) in another book called TALES FOR THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, VOLUME ONE (ISBN 0-7607-6775-0).

The book I read is called Tales for the Midnight Hour, by J.B Stamper.
I really recommend this book to the people that like scary stories if not put this book down wimp! Tales for the Midnight Hour is full of horror. At night it will make you stay up asking yourself "is that true?" This book is better than "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark." I`ll give you a summary about one story. This one is called "The Black Velvet Ribbon" Which is about a girl who always had a black velvet always worn on her neck. She would never take it off not even on her wedding! Her husband always asked her if she would take it off but she would always answer "you'll be sorry." Always the same question and answer. The day came when she was sleeping he pulled the ribbon and saw there was no ending until... I will not tell you the rest figure it out yourself! If you enjoyed this summary you'll enjoy the whole story. The way you can figure the last part out is by locating this book in any library.
Trust me you wont like it you'll love it!
By: Giovanna M.

'Tales For The Midnight Hour' is a book of 17 scary stories, aimed at children but can be read by any age. I originally read the book after borrowing it from a library here in England, but a few years later, I had trouble finding it. (It was an American import). None of our shops had it and the library had got rid of it. I ordered an import of it from a book store, and received it a few weeks later (at this time I wasn't aware of Amazon).
The book is still as good, I'm 16 now. The stories are very eerie and well worth a read, especially 'The Furry Collar', 'The Black Velvet Ribbon' and 'The Attic Door'.
Buy the book - you won't be disappointed.
For your information, there were some follow-ups to the book:
More Tales For the Midnight Hour, Even More Tales for the Midnight Hour and Still More tales for the Midnight Hour.

I first bought this book at a book fair when I was in elementary school. I read it constantly, and loved it!! Now that I have my own child, I bought another copy for him, and he absolutely adores it! He loves to read it, and especially have it read to him! GREAT, GREAT BOOK!!! Especially on those dark, stormy nights!!