Blog #3: Weenies Roasting on an Open Fire by Alicia Freeman

I am reading the Weenies series by David Lubar. I was drawn to it because it markets as scary and creepy stories for kids. As a child, I loved creepy stories. I could be found getting the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series (which were really quite scary. They even had terrifying illustrations – which I used for my feature image) and true ghost story books. My expectations, though, were low for the Weenies.

However, I quite enjoy them. Some of the stories are actually quite messed up, including one telling about a slide with a bug infestation in the middle that traps and devours children. Some of the stories left me with a creepy feeling, which I still enjoy. Some of the stories, including a vampire leather jacket, are simply silly. I still enjoyed those, but I prefer the scary stories more. Even now, I drift toward creepypasta and the macabre. Perhaps the only thing I could say I dislike about the series is that I’d prefer even scarier stories.

Since I want to be a high school teacher, I would use the Weenie stories in more fun ways. One of the stories, “Kidzilla,” has the child wake up as a lizard, much like Kafka’s The Metamorphosis where the character wakes up as a cockroach. I would have the students read “Kidzilla” along with Kafka and have them compare. Furthermore, in one of the lesson plans our group found online (but I can’t seem to find now) talks about Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories. I would relate that to Poe’s “Philosophy of Composition” where he says he likes stories to be short. It may help the students relate to Poe more. Mostly, I’d use the Weenies stories to help students understand broader literature topics.

In general, I like the series, and I would probably give these books to my own children once they got to fifth grade or so.