Someone in this country really likes scary movies and horror books. Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Peter Straub, Shirley Jackson, and so many others have made fortunes scaring the dickens out of readers of all ages. In 1976 Jack Prelutsky earned a place as an author who could unnerve readers with some psychological haunts.

Jack Prelutsky, the nation’s first Children’s Poet Laureate (2006), has a reputation for writing zany, irreverent, surreal, playful, outrageously funny, and weird, I will even say bizarre and hauntingly scary poems.

Jack Prelutsky teamed up with another favorite children’s author/illustrator, Arnold Lobel, to create this collection of poems, Nightmares, a collection determined to scare older elementary school readers. They love to be scared, the same as many adults do, and this assembly of poems will scare children into screaming and nightmarish dreaming.

Nightmares, Poems to Trouble Your Sleep almost appears too scary to pick up. Guarding the pages is a skeleton (on the cover) draped in a large, dark overcoat and a top hat holding a bouquet of roses. Are the roses an invitation to join him for a dance or dinner, or something else? If the cover gets your heart racing, perhaps you’re too wimpy to go inside. If you’re still tempted to enter, what you’ll find might have your heart pounding louder than your screaming.

This book is not written for young children. Obviously children need to be mature enough to realize nothing is real, but receptive enough to the possibility that perhaps it could be. The vocabulary will send fifth and sixth grade readers to the dictionary, as well as a few adults, but at their age they should be exercising the dictionary.

Simply stated, the poems are haunting. They grab that special spot inside and squeeze, creating a somewhat panicked sensation. The first poem, The Haunted House, is two pages long, and by the time it was done with me I doubted my ability to proceed. For example, the following excerpt from the last two thirds of the poem…

“Revenants on misty perches
taunt the ghost that lunges, lurches
as it desperately searches
for its vanished head.
Shapeless wraiths devoid of feeling
hover blindly by the ceiling
ranting, chanting, shrieking, squealing
promises of dread

In the corners, eyes are gleaming,
everywhere are nightmares streaming,
diabolic horrors screaming
in the sombrous air.
So shun this place where specters soar—
it’s you and you they’re waiting for
to haunt your souls forevermore
in their castle of despair.”

A Will O’ the Wisp will lead readers astray in a forest, never again to be seen. We’re advised to avoid the Bogeyman, he will ”crumple your bones in his bogey embrace…when he gets you.” The Vampire might keep the bravest readers from closing their eyes at night. Prelutsky contributed twelve truly eerie poems: The Dragon of Death, The Troll, The Witch, The Ogre, The Werewolf, The Wizards, The Ghoul and The Dance of the Thirteen Skeletons. Be aware that none of these creatures are friendly, nor silly, a few are bloodthirsty, and a few want to gobble you up.

The Troll wants to
“catch your arms and clutch your legs
and grind you to a pulp.
then swallow you like scrambled eggs---
gobble! gobble! gulp!

So watch your steps when next you go
upon a pleasant stroll,
or you might end in the pit below
as supper for the troll.”

Arnold Lobel’s eerily dark pen and illustrations are not the cute, friendly illustrations from Frog and Toad adventures. These are perfect complements to Prelutsky’s haunting poems. A full-page illustration accompanies each poem. These are the images that form in our nightmares. Many of us dream in black and white, including nightmares, which often contain shadowed images. (Well, at least mine are black and white and shadowed.) These creatures from the dark of night, depicted in shades of black and grey, combine to make Nightmares a classic book of children’s poems.

The best? Each of us has our own favorite/most-dreaded nightmare. For me, the vampire waking up after a long sleep chilled me to the bone. After being out for a night of sating himself on blood, filling every pore until his thirst was satisfied, he slept. But then,

"and there awhile in silence
he’ll rest beneath the mud
until, with thoughts of violence,
He wakes and utters…blood!"

Some will certainly ask why do these poems need to be gruesome and ghoulish? For that I don’t have an answer because that asks why as adults we enjoy books about Dracula, vampires, Frankenstein, horrible creatures in space, Freddie, ax murders, and so on. That’s an answer for psychiatrists. I can only speculate that we enjoy the thrill, the possibility of unknown, the eerie other world and perhaps that gives us a sense of balance. I don’t know. Personally I would enjoy the opportunity to read a few of these with a 10-year old, both of us sitting in a darker part of a room and reading these with a slow, measured pace and a hushed voice hoping that the words don't invite the ghouls to appear.

Jack Prelutsky’s often forgotten book, Nightmares, Poems to Trouble Your Sleep, was written for those of us who enjoy the sensation of a superb terror, one that is both exquisitely memorable and delicious. This book is perfect for the haunting times of year, Halloween and Day of the Dead. If this is too scary for you don’t read it. Don’t buy it for your children if nightmares are problems for them. But, for the rest of us who shop the horror and suspense book sections and can’t wait for the next horror movie, enjoy but remember…

“And when the gruesome, grisly ghoul
has nothing left to chew,
he hurries to another school
and waits…perhaps for you.”

This is an entry into msmorvay's 4th Annual Resurrecting the Oldies Book Write Off.


Recommended: Yes