Synopses & Reviews
Welcome to The Cabinet of Curiosities
Please enter.
No, really, come in. The Curators are delighted you are here. They invite you to turn a page, pull open a drawer, peek inside a room, slither into a nook. In fact, they insist.
Sometimes visitors to the cabinet find it rewarding to dive right into the middle. You could try that. You could flip back and forth. Start your exploration at the very end. Or the beginning.
The important thing is that you are here. Oh, do come in! The Curators guarantee you will find something . . . curious.
The Cabinet of Curiosities is a collection of eerie, mysterious, intriguing, and very short short stories presented by the cabinet's esteemed Curators, otherwise known as acclaimed authors Stefan Bachmann, Katherine Catmull, Claire Legrand, and Emma Trevayne.
Review
“A hefty sheaf of chillersall short enough to share aloud and expertly cast to entice unwary middle graders a step or two into the shadows.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Review
“This collection of 36 short dark fantasies . . . aspires to sit on the same shelf as Alvin Schwartzs Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and succeeds admirably. . . . Readers who enjoy their Halloween chills all year round will find this anthology a delight.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review
“With school dismissed, its time for pure pleasure reading. . . . The Cabinet of Curiosities . . . lets readers dip in and out of 36 spine-tingling tales.” Shelf Awareness for Readers
Review
“The stories are remarkable both for their uniformly high quality and for their distinctness from one another; the abundant atmospherics, including occasional stark black-and-white illustrations, provide a unifying sense of dread.” The Horn Book
Review
“For readers who have gloried in and graduated from Alvin Schwartzs collections of scary stories, the tales collected here will provide a deliciously tingly next step.…All are engagingly unsettling in some way, with a select few crossing over into genuine nightmare territory.” Bulletin of the Center for Children & #8217;s Books
Synopsis
A collection of thirty-six forty eerie, mysterious, intriguing, and very short stories by the acclaimed authors Stefan Bachmann, Katherine Catmull, Claire LeGrand, and Emma Trevayne.
The Cabinet of Curiosities is perfect for fans of Alvin Schwartz's
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and anyone who relishes a good creepy tale. Great for reading alone or reading aloud at camp or school!
The book features an introduction and commentary by the authors and black-and-white illustrations throughout.
About the Author
Stefan Bachmann
Tinker of Shadows and Tailor of Lies, with a fascination for eighth notes, old trees and their inhabitants, and pictures that move. Don't give him anything to hold, because his fingers are stained with ink. (At least, it looks like ink. . . .)
Katherine Catmull
Cataloger and Philosopher of Scientific Marvels with a particular focus on Jars of Moonlight, Frozen Flowers, Broken Fish Fins, Shiny Things Found on Pavements, and Bringing Cookies to Meetings.
Claire Legrand's first novel was The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, a New York Public Library Best Book for Children in 2012. She is also the author of The Year of Shadows and Winterspell, a young adult retelling of The Nutcracker. She is one of the four authors behind The Cabinet of Curiosities anthology, a Junior Library Guild selection and a NYPL Best Book for Children in 2014.
Emma Trevayne
Collector of Auditory Oddities, Whimsical Words, and Cryptic Cyphers. Pays special attention to petrichor, things that glimmer, and mechanical body parts.