Books that traumatized you as a child

[Infovore]

Ah, thought of another one that creeped me out. Hopefully somebody here remembers the title so I can hunt it up and see if it’s still creepy now.

I was in 4th grade (this would have been mid 70s), and it was in an anthology of creepy stories that we had in our classroom library (I was in a GATE class that had 4th-6th grade, and some of our library books were a bit more mature than standard stuff for that grade level.) Anyway, the first story in the book was about a guy who took his little daughter to a fair (she was only about 4 or so). She wanted to ride the Ferris wheel. For some reason he put her on the ride alone (I don’t remember why he didn’t go with her) but as it started, he took a spot where he could keep watch on her as she rode. At first he could see her, and waved to her each time she went around, but then the next time she was gone. He figured he just missed her and waited for the wheel to come around again–but she was still gone. When the ride stopped, she was nowhere to be found. I don’t remember how the story ended.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

[Ferret_Herder]

@Nikki_Tikki_Tavi

I think that’s it! I’m tempted to see if I can find a copy to see if it creeps me out as much as it did back in 6th grade. I’m glad I didn’t know it was a true story then, I never would have been able to sleep!

Yeep. Who hasn’t had a nightmare like that? Being attacked in full view of bystanders, no one coming to help…

If it makes you feel any better, that’s not really the way it happened. Sensationalist media coverage made it sound that way. Someone who heard an initial cry for help did yell at the guy and scared him off, but he came back later. With the cold weather, most people had windows tightly closed and heard nothing. Some people called the cops but were unable to give a solid description of what happened, and the calls weren’t given priority. And no one heard the final attack.

[RiverRunner]

@Lumpy

Didn’t the early Mad magazine do a parody of this?

Also, Heap (comics) - Wikipedia

Yes, they did, and it was terrific.
RR

[Pazu]

@Marlitharn

When I was 9 or 10, I read an anthology of horror stories from the school library. I have no idea what the name of it was, but two of the stories freaked me out so badly I was in my late 20s before I could start sleeping with the light off. (To be fair, it probably wasn’t just those two stories - I dove headfirst into horror/ghost stories at a young age and still haven’t completely emerged, but those stories began it.)

One of them involves a boy who finds a strange skeleton at a construction site. It’s baby-sized, with a beaked skull, and he takes it home and hides it in his basement with a vague idea of trying to sell it to the university. Of course the thing comes alive that night and eats his dog (turns out the construction site was actually an Indian burial ground, reinforcing my theory that one should never let an Indian handle a shovel - no good ever comes of it). The last scene in the story describes the boy standing at the top of the basement stairs as the creature looks up at him, the light glinting off the fresh blood on its beak - and then the basement door swings shut and locks.

The second story begins with a boy in the Olde Worlde who has just been to a neighbor’s house to pick out a puppy. He’s trying to get home before dark but he doesn’t make it and the Rich Landowner’s dogs start chasing him. He drops his puppy while trying to climb a tree and the Landowner’s dogs kill it, vividly. That part of the story had me in tears - I was highly indignant at the idea that rich guy and his mean dogs could do whatever they wanted, and no one could do anything about it. It wasn’t fair. Ah, youth.

That would probably be the anthology Monster Tales: Vampires, Werewolves, and Things, edited by Roger Elwood (he did a series of these collections, as I recall).

The first story you mention is “The Wendigo’s Child” by Thomas Monteleone, which was read to my third-grade class by our school librarian at Halloween and scared the crap out of me for years.

I don’t remember the title of the second story, but as I recall, the boy is later offered the chance to become a werewolf in order to take revenge on the Landowner’s dogs.

It also included stories such as “Precious Bodily Fluids”, about a vampire (which I don’t really remember at all), and “The Vyrkolak”, which was a rather amusing tale about a sort of were-toad.

It’s a great book, but according to Amazon, it’s out of print. Bummer.

As for my contribution: there was another story in one of those Elwood collections about the shadow of an elm tree, which our librarian read to us in 4th grade. Unfortunately, she only had time to read the first half…

[Ferret_Herder]

@Pazu

That would probably be the anthology Monster Tales: Vampires, Werewolves, and Things, edited by Roger Elwood (he did a series of these collections, as I recall).

The first story you mention is “The Wendigo’s Child” by Thomas Monteleone, which was read to my third-grade class by our school librarian at Halloween and scared the crap out of me for years.

Aaaah! That’s the story I couldn’t recall the last time I participated in one of these threads. Traumatized the hell out of me. I just remember the puppy dying and had suppressed the rest of the memory.

[TheFaerie]

The ghost stories in a book called Ozark Magic and Superstition that was a collection of well, Ozark magic and superstition. Everytime I would go to my grandparent’s house to spend the night I would read that book and scare the heck out of myself with stories of black dogs, disappearing cabins, murdered babies crying, etc.
I own that book now and I still love it.