Sourcing family friendly frightening fiction can be a bit challenging. That said, while straightforward horror texts rarely serve family audiences, the gothic is a mode of storytelling that has a long history of delighting and disgusting parents and children alike. <\/p>\n
Naturally, there is intellectual and stylistic value to both classic horror and the gothic. However, while horror interacts more directly with fear, the gothic<\/a> favours observing the tension<\/a> surrounding the source of fear. <\/p>\n \n The stereotypical gothic heroine is not only trapped in the haunted house, she desires to understand it. Children\u2019s books which use the gothic mode of storytelling encourage a similar investigative impulse in children. This is the modus operandi of the Scooby Doo gang, for example: research, exploration and answer-seeking rather than simply succumbing to fear. <\/p>\n Some iconic examples of children\u2019s gothic literature include Neil Gaiman\u2019s Coraline<\/a> (2002), Roald Dahl\u2019s The Witches<\/a> (1983), The Spiderwick Chronicles<\/a> (Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, 2003 to 2009) and The Saga of Darren Shan<\/a> (Darren Shan, 2000 to 2004). <\/p>\n This article is part of a series of expert recommendations of spooky stories \u2013 on screen and in print \u2013 for brave young souls. From the surprisingly dark depths of Watership Down to Tim Burton\u2019s delightfully eerie kid-friendly films, there\u2019s a whole haunted world out there just waiting for kids to explore. Dare to dive in here<\/a>.<\/em> <\/p>\n While these are all excellent tales, the spooky story which impacted me most as a child, and still does as an adult, is Lemony Snicket\u2019s A Series of Unfortunate Events (1999 to 2006). This 13-book series follows three orphaned siblings, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire as they are forced to navigate the homes of various (increasingly odd and occasionally villainous) guardians. All the while they try evade capture at the hand of evil Count Olaf who seeks their family fortune, and solve the mystery of what the VFD (Volunteer Fire Department) organisation is \u2013 the answer to which might hold the key their parents\u2019 mysterious past.<\/p>\n I was five years old when I received a copy of the first book in the series, aptly titled, The Bad Beginning<\/a>. That first foray into the dark world of the Baudelaires meant that for the next few years the days I got to go to the bookshop to get the next book were some of the most exciting I experienced.<\/p>\n
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\n Scary stories for kids: these tales of terror made me a hit at sleepovers as a pre-teen<\/a>
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