Thanks to Dover & NetGalley for providing a digital ARC. I have the fondest memories of this book and a reread did not disappoint. I credit this title as my entrée into the world of urban legend and folklore. I especially love the illustrations, and the cats from "Sop, Doll, Sop" are amazing looking and suuuuuper creepy. Some stories are better than others, but the best ones have stayed with me for decades and I think of them regularly. Love!

Okay, so this was originally published in 1959, and it is basically an early (and tamer) version of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. When I requested this I was not aware it was a reprinting, so I was sorely upset that it felt like a knock-off of Alvin Schwartz’s work, but it actually is interesting that others were doing this work before Alvin and probably inspired him a bit. I guess Leach walked so Schwartz could RUN. Many of the stories are similar in nature, but they aren’t as spooky as Scary Stories and the illustrations are MUCH less creepy.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

I gave this book four stars, it was a bit hit and miss for me but considering the book was written in the middle of the last century it was actually much better than I expected and I did enjoy it!

'The Thing at the Foot of the Bed and Other Scary Tales' by Maria Leach with illustrations by Kurt Werth reminded me of camping and telling ghost stories around the fire. Do people still do that?

Here is a book from the middle of the last century. There are quite a few ghost stories organized by type. There are funny ones, scary ones, "real" ones, ghost games, witch stories, and do's and don't's about ghosts. None of the stories is particularly scary, and most are quaint and somewhat funny. There are lone hitchhikers who disappear and talking cats and people who mistakenly shoot their foot thinking it's a ghost. All of the stories are quite short.

I don't know if kids today would even care about a collection like this. I read lots of Rod Serling and Alfred Hitchcock collections and loved the Universal monsters. I remember being scared of the hook-handed man and the girl with the ribbon tied around her neck. These are more like folklore. The footnotes tell where the stories are told, and this was of more interest to me. The illustrations break up the stories and are a bit on the rough side, but I liked them. There is a bibliography for further reading. I enjoyed this not so scary collection of ghost stories.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Dover Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.