2024 Two-Sentence Scary Story Contest

First off, let me say that Halloween is not my favorite holiday.  As a 33-year educator, I did not enjoy dressing up on Halloween at school. I'm not sure what it is, particularly. I'm sure it has much to do with being introverted and shy. Teaching in and of itself requires me to push those feelings and personality characteristics aside because the more I learn and experience teaching, the more I realize that no matter how hard you try, teaching is, in essence, a performance. It's theatrical.

I have been a school librarian for over a decade, six of which have been with middle schoolers. I have found the perfect blend of theater, comedy, passion, and a good dose of humor that works well with fifth and sixth graders. The first 20-plus years of my teaching career were spent in elementary school, teaching from kindergarten to fifth grade. 

So, Halloween is an exciting time for kids. I enjoyed it more in the elementary grades because there was such innate joy in kids choosing costumes and being excited to see what their friends chose to 'be' for trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

My little 'monster!'

Middle school is a lot different.  Kids still love dressing up, but it feels different. Thankfully, my district listened to teachers because we have the day after Halloween off from kids; it is a professional development day.  I remember when that first started several years ago.  Brilliant!  

Honest, I'm not a curmudgeon.  I guess it's that feeling that 'this could spiral into insanity feeling' that makes me uncomfortable.  I know I am not alone.

"There is a child in every one of us who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly lit front porch." 

-Robert Brault

However, I now work with a talented and creative library associate who loves Halloween. She goes hog wild decorating the library space; it's quite fun. Over the last few years, I've gotten into the spirit by highlighting middle-grade scary books, and some incredible authors are working in this genre:  Lindsay Currie, Katherine Arden, Neil Gaiman, and Ellen Oh, just to name a few.

Just a few of our 'scary' stories!

Last year was the first year that I personally hosted a two-sentence scary story contest. The rules were simple: two sentences—no guns, and I encouraged kids to try not to be too gory. We created a Google form where kids submitted their entries, and I promised prizes. I didn't realize what I was getting into, but I had over 170 entries; culling through those stories was quite a task but also fun.

To truly credit the person who came up with this concept, I did some research. The first instance explaining the process was an article in School Library Journal from 2022 by Rozanna Baranets. She described how she laid it out and made it work phenomenally well. I am sure that I read that article but didn't have it in mind when deciding on this contest last year.

In October 2019, I tried to come up with a library-friendly way to celebrate Halloween—my favorite holiday—and thought a short writing contest would do the trick. Two sentences max, not a lot of gore please, and pinkie swear to me that you did not copy this off the internet. I figured a handful of my library regulars would participate, I’d pick “the scariest” story and reward the winner with a Starbucks gift card. And we’d all have a little fun in the process.
-Rozanna Baranets

It was refreshing to go back and reread that article in preparation for this post to see exactly what we did and how successful it was. It was funny doing a Google search and seeing who else has done something similar—this contest is extremely popular at university libraries! 

As mentioned earlier, we had over 170 entries—choosing the fifth-grade winner, sixth-grade winner, and overall winner was tough! This year, we decided to involve previous winners as celebrity judges and reach out and invite my colleague at our 7th—8th-grade building's students to help narrow down choices, too! 

You'll agree these stories are incredible—the overall winning student made me do a double take.  When I read her story to this year's students, there was an audible gasp in the room!  She was a very reserved and quiet kid, but she delivered.

More than 150 entries later, I realized I’d hit a nerve. Kids who had never stepped foot in the library came in droves to turn in the darkest, most macabre and eyebrow-raising fictional tales of death, loss, and horror. It turns out, more than a few middle schoolers devote quite some time to pondering the concepts of death and dying. 

-Rozanna Baranets

This year's contest is off to an exciting start!  I will share the entry form with sixth graders this week, and I am eager to see their creativity in their second go with the contest.

Late entry... I just came across the fantastic site called The Lively Library by Jennifer Zimny, the phenomenal teacher-librarian at Ponderosa High School, which has a site that is chock-full of free resources and ideas!  She offers a fantastic Two-Sentence Scary Story Contest collection of tools to get you started here:  LINK 

Follow her on Twitter and Instagram

What do you think?  Have you tried it?  Do you have any suggestions or tips?  I would love to learn from you.  Please share your insights in the comments!

Happy Halloween!

Update: The Results are in!  Check out the video to see our winners!