Bites: Scary Stories to Sink Your Teeth Into

Edited by Lois Metzger

Featuring Original Short Stories by:
Christopher Paul Curtis
Kevin Emerson
Joshua Gee
Peter Lerangis
Douglas Rees
Neal Shusterman and Terry Black
Ellen Wittlinger

My foreword to the collection:

When it comes to vampires and werewolves, what you don’t know can bite you.

It is widely believed that vampires are dead people brought back to life. Their sole purpose is to suck the blood of the living, which can turn the living people into vampires, too.

Not necessarily.

An eighth-grade vampire gets his blood from the blood bank in Christopher Paul Curtis’s story, “Going Old School in the Age of Obama.” This kid wouldn’t be caught dead biting anyone—or would he?

Rule #1: It’s not enough to watch your back. Watch your neck, too.

Some vampires have their hearts in the right places, so to speak. But others are untrustworthy. How can you tell the difference? It’s tricky, as one of them learns the hard way in Peter Lerangis’s tale, “I, Blooder.”

Rule #2: There isn’t always honor among vampires.

If you think a vampire lives in your neighborhood, resist the temptation to pay him a visit. This is something a couple of kids can’t help doing in Kevin Emerson’s story, “The Coffin Deliveries.”

Rule #3: Do not become the “guests of honor” at a vampire dinner.

Werewolves are known to be people who—temporarily or permanently, voluntarily or involuntarily—are capable of turning into wolves. But there’s a special kind of wolf that must keep to the shadows and away from the light. The characters in Joshua Gee’s story, “Where Wolves Never Wander,” find out why firsthand—or firstpaw, as the case may be.

Rule #4: Stay out of direct sunlight. At the very least, use sunblock.

If you find yourself in the company of a werewolf, get away as fast as you can. Do not stop to take a picture on your cell phone. JUST RUN.

Sometimes it may be too late to flee, as two brothers find out in a graveyard in “Perpetual Pest,” by Neal Shusterman and Terry Black.

Rule #5: Never remove the silver bullets from a dead werewolf’s body.

There are other creatures that can bite, too, such as spiritually possessed coyotes, who are always watching, always alert. This is why you should never take something that doesn’t belong to you. When the girl in Douglas Rees’s story, “Anasazi Breakdown,” picks up an ancient piece of broken Native American pottery, she thinks it’s okay to do so.

It isn’t.

Rule #6: Don’t steal—especially rare artifacts.

Dogs are man’s—and woman’s—best friend. Maybe you have a dog. Maybe you have more than one. But it’s important to own a living dog. Ghost dogs are not nearly as friendly, especially when they’re upset about something, like the dog in Ellen Wittlinger’s “Ghost Dog.”

Rule #7:  You can’t teach a ghost dog new tricks.

“Once bitten, twice shy” is an old expression.  But you don’t want to get bitten even once.  There are seven stories about bites in this book.  As you’ll see, sometimes one bite is all it takes.