It’s Spooky Season!!! This is first cache in the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark Series. As the series title entails, these caches are all horror themed and are, therefore, not appropriate for young children! While none of these caches are dangerous in nature, some of their imagery may be considered disturbing. Cache at your own risk!
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Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark is a series of short horror stories for children published by HarperCollins publishing company. The collection comprises of three books written by Alvin Schwartz from 1981-1991. The stories in each book covered a variety of horror genres including ghost stories, folklore, urban legends, supernatural tales, comedies, and songs. Each story was originally accompanied by charcoal and ink drawings by artist Stephen Gammell. These illustrations garnered an abundance of media scandals due to their iconic stylization and their ability to frighten their target audience.
Due to the disturbing nature of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark’s writing and illustrations, it quickly became one of the most controversial book series of its time. It was listed by the American Library Association as being the most challenged book series of the 1990s and the seventh most challenged of the 2000s. Critics called the books “sick” and “repulsive” stating they were “not appropriate for children”. Many groups attempted to ban Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark from schools and libraries across America.
In 2011, HarperCollins responded to years of backlash by releasing a new edition of the series with new art by Brett Helquist. This incited major controversy and protest from fans of Gammell’s original artwork. Defenders argued that the stories and art were suited for “middle-school kids, who are perfectly able to cope with this kind of thing” and that the stories “help children deal with reality by putting faces on what they’re afraid of”. After a copious amount of complaints, HarperCollins restored the original artwork to subsequent printings of the series, bringing back the illustrations that terrified and enthralled so many.
As of 2017, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark had collectively sold over seven million copies, and appeared on numerous children’s best-seller lists. The series has been hailed as a “cultural touchstone for a generation”, with the artwork in particular often being singled out for praise. It was adapted for film in 2019 by Andre Ovredal and grossed over $104.5 million at the box office. It also received its own documentary in 2019 featuring interviews with the author, artist, and other children’s horror authors of the time such as R. L. Stine (known for his famous Goosebumps series).
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This cache is based on the story, “The Big Toe”, which is the very first story from the first book in the series. It is an adaptation of the southwestern tale “The Golden Arm”. It follows a young farmer boy who finds an unusually big toe in his garden. He brings the toe home to his mother, who cooks it in a stew and feeds it to the family. What happens next is beyond explanation and is sure to give you a scare!
This cache is not your traditional lock n lock or bison tube. If you’ve read the story, that should give you a hint as to what sort of object you’re looking for. Beware… the cache container’s appearance may be disturbing to younger caches! Cache at your own risk! While you won’t be cooking this cache in a stew like the story, it is located next to a restaurant where you can find some delicious soups for the fall season. This cache also contains a mechanism to keep the log from sinking too far into its host. Therefore, you shouldn’t need tweezers to access the log. When replacing the log into the host, please be careful not to shove the log in too far so that the next cacher can avoid using a TOTT to access is.
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Happy caching! And have a great spooky season!
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Congrats to Unusual Suspect for the FTF!!!