It was a dark and spooky night. There were ghosts, and vampires, and zombies, and werewolves, and demons, and evil little old ladies, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and they would not go away until we had read all 191 ghost stories, and picked nine winners. Read on, if you dare.

A Halloween Poem

“My Room”

My room is haunted, you see, it is really kinda frightening.

The monsters come from under my bed, the bugs from beneath my head!

The snakes and goblins keep me up with their bickering and fighting.

The monsters start flickering the lights! The vampires are sorta frightening.

I see light. Yes! The sun is up!

So you see, this is why my room is just not for me!

Best monster

“From the shadows, the five young children watched in terror as a large purple mass emerged from the darkness … He began singing softly, If all the raindrops were lemondrops and gumdrops – but eventually grew loud and terrible, STANDING OUTSIDE WITH MY MOUTH OPEN WIDE — then Barney’s face brightened, and through the white felt of his “teeth” came out large razor sharp teeth, his real teeth.”

Best title

“Camp No Man.” Trust us, you don’t want to spend the summer there.

Best setting

The Kilby Mansion, once owned by the governor of Alabama, now known as the KILL-by Mansion.

Best punchline

A skeleton, a jack o’ lantern and a monster are playing Twister. “Every time Skully played Twister, his pelvis fell off.”

Best prop

A two-way mirror that sucks in unwary victims.

Best opening line

“Hi, I’m Bob, and this is a story about the time I became a ghost.”

Best ending line

“From that day on, I swore that I would never go in the woods and open a mysterious box ever again.”

Best haunting

While on a tour of the White House, a boy is visited by the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, who wants to revise the Gettysburg Address.