Hubbub and Blurt: Scary Tales by James Preller

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Scary Tales by James Preller

FIC PRE

FIC PRE
In I Scream, You Scream, PRELLER invites us to "Enter the world of Samantha Carver, an ordinary kid who loves amusement parks, the smell of popcorn, and the terror of a heart-pounding ride. Sam’s got a ticket in her pocket for a very special ride. This ticket will send Sam and her new friend, Andy, on a most unusual adventure — and leave them screaming for their lives. So come along, take a seat. Buckle up, nice and tight. It’s sure to be a bumpy ride."

Read more about Scary Tales Series here.

Here's what readers say about Scary Tales books:

“Finally, thrillers for younger readers! SCARY TALES is a wonderfully creepy introduction to a gripping, ghostly genre” — Patty Norman, Copperfield’s Books.

“We need more scary stories for young kids. This series looks PERFECT!” –Franki Sibberson, teacher, Dublin City Schools, Ohio.

“This little page-turner could become a campfire classic!” — Cybils.

“The thrills and chills are delightfully spine-tingling in this truly terrifying tale. A great choice for reluctant readers.” – School Library Journal.

The author, James Preller, says this about his Scary Tales:

"Writing “scary” has been liberating. A blast. In the past, I’ve mostly written realistic fiction. But for these stories I’ve tapped into a different sort of imagination, what I think of as theunpossible. The trick is that once you accept that one impossible element—a zombie or a ghost in the mirror—then the story plays out in a straightforward manner.

All storytelling has its backbone in realistic fiction. So many kids, even at a surprisingly young age, are eager to read scary stories. I tried to fill that gap. “Scary” thrills them. It makes their hearts beat faster. Yet I say to students, “I’m sorry, but nobody gets murdered in these books. There are no heads chopped off. No gore.” To me, the great sentence is: The door knob slowly, slowly turned. That delicious moment of anticipation, of danger climbing the stairs. I’ve tried to provide those chills, while still resolving each book in a safe way."

Kirkus Reviews interviewed James Preller! Read that article here.

Young James Preller

Preller is the youngest of seven children, and has two older sisters and four older brothers. He grew up in Wantagh, New York. Preller made up stories when he was young and sold them to friends, family, and neighbors. At that time, however, he planned to become a baseball player for the New York Mets.He went to college in Oneonta, New York. After graduating from college in 1983, he worked as a waiter for one year before being hired as a copywriter by Scholastic Corporation. "Meeting" many notable children's writers through their books, he was inspired to try writing himself. His first book, MAXX TRAX: Avalanche Rescue, was published in 1986. Since then Preller has written a variety of books, some under pen names including Mitzy Kafka, James Patrick, and Izzy Bonkers. James Preller is the author of over 80 books for children. He lives in Delmar, New York, with his wife Lisa and their three children, Nicholas, Gavin, and Maggie.

James Preller

Wake Me in Spring, Scholastic, 1994
Hiccups for Elephant, Scholastic, 1995
Ghost Cat and Other Spooky Tales, Scholastic, 2007
Along Came Spider, Scholastic, 2008
Six Innings, Square Fish, 2008
Bystander, Square Fish, 2009
Mighty Casey, Feiwel & Friends, 2009
Justin Fisher Declares War!, Scholastic, 2010
A Pirate's Guide to First Grade, Feiwel & Friends, 2010
Before You Go, Feiwel & Friends, 2012
A Pirate's Guide to Recess, Feiwel & Friends, 2013

Jigsaw Jones Series (32 books!)

Scary Tales

Home Sweet Horror, 2013
I Scream, You Scream!, 2013
Good Night, Zombie, 2013
Nightmareland, 2014
One-Eyed Doll, 2014

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Reading and Me

When I read, I experience in poet Jane Hirshfield’s words, “a clarification and magnification of being”. Hirshfield is speaking specifically of poetry here, “its word-woven and musical invocation”. The treasure - the ability and freedom to read – and its result – knowledge, insight, wisdom, understanding, empathy, compassion - is lifeblood of human civilizations. The exploration of words (those squiggly shape pictures on the pages) – broken down into those letters in a row then a space then some more letters in a row, each having a sound and a way – knowable! – to become the sentence, the paragraph, the verse, the poem, the story, the novel, the treatise, the manifesto, the sacred statement, the myth – this exploration of words, how to read them and what they mean – this is reading. If you cannot read, the list of loss goes on forever. The works of these authors: Aardema. Alcott. Avi. Babbitt. Bemelmans. Carle. Cooney. Coville. Dahl. Dorros, DePaola. Ehlert. Galdone. Hamilton. Henkes. Keats. Kimmel. Lester. Lobel. Lowry. MacLachlan. McKissack. O’Dell. Peck. Peet. Pinkney. Polacco. Rylant. Seuss. Silverstein. Spinelli. Travers. Ungar. Van Allsburg. Wells. Wilder. Young. Zieffert. Language is a living thing – these stories are mirrors of our lives and doors into other families and cultures.

I worked for many years at the Reference Desk in the Children’s Room of the Public Library. The first key to that room is an adult who will bring a child and choose books to look at and read aloud. The second key to that room is consistent regular persistent introduction to the wealth lined up on each shelf. The third key is the habit of use – a willingness, a commitment, to go weekly, to bring a big rolling box, to read and reread and reread the books at home. Ask the librarian questions, look for answers in the books. The questions may not be “homework related” –- the questions may be “What’s a good book about taking a bath? Try The Tub People by Pam Conrad. “My child thinks she will never be able to figure some things out.” How about Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Krauss? “We are planting a garden.” How about Allison’s Zinnia by Anita Lobel?

During my year with Minnesota Reading Corps I helped children with reading skills. I held open the door. I held open the passages. I focused on the vowels and helped turn squiggly picture shapes into words made of letters. Mystery to meaning. We walked through these doors. This is blending, this is segmenting. In blending students connect sounds together, in segmenting they separate words into sounds. The reading path begins with awareness of the page content. Reading is decoding. The words are made of sounds! The sentences are made of words! There are syllables and segments! There are rhymes! We can blend, we can combine separate sounds into meaningful words! We can take this words apart and make different words! This is segmenting, this is blending, this is reading! This has meaning. We work to achieve comprehension by constructing meaning from the written text. This word means something you can know. This vocabulary makes meaning. This story is for YOU. You make this story mean something. This is the world that reading opens and enriches. There are fierce thunderstorms here and nannies who arrive by umbrella. There are Enormous Crocodiles, Muffins for Moose, Snowy Days, Giant Peaches and Millions of Cats. There is a Bear Hunt and An Old Lady Who Swallows a Fly. There is a Velveteen Rabbit and a Garden of Verses. There is a place where there are Wild Things. This is the world that is lost to a child who cannot read.

Today in the USA most children learn to read at school. Few bring homemade lunches anymore and most bring complications that arise from our culture’s technological fixations and media fascinations. Nevertheless, schools and teachers are diligently striving to teach these children to read. Some take to it, others do not. Some have help from home, many do not. Some speak languages other than English and cannot read in either language. Some will learn to read. Some will not. Others will require a faithful consistent daily reading tutor. Be that person another student, an Associate Educator, a teacher, a parent, an encourager – we all had helpers. Here at Loring Library we have books. And I am here to open doors and read aloud and answer questions and point the way and listen and learn. Welcome to Loring Library.