Josh Wolf tells stories as part of his work as the children's services manager at the Monroe County Public Library. But Halloween is the one time a year when he trots out the scary stories.
He says there is a deep tradition of storytelling among librarians that goes back to the early 20th century. "We do read-alouds," he adds, "but the big distinction here is learning a story and telling it – not memorized, not word-for-word, but just telling it as it comes to you."
Scary stories are the most difficult stories to find for him. "If it's not really scary, it's going to be funny! But how far can you push it? It's a really fine line." He found the short and powerful story "An Easy Gig," by M.T. Anderson, in the collection "Half Minute Horrors."
An Easy Gig
Gabe thought that the baby was pretty good. In fact, as babysitting gigs went, this was a really easy one. The baby was actually down for the night already when he got there. In fact, there wasn't really anything for him to do but watch TV, eat the lasagna that the Kennedy parents had left for him, and lie there on the couch talking to his friend Ralph on the phone…
For More Scary Stories...
- Find Half Minutes Horrors on Amazon