More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids

First edition
Author	Jamie Rix
Audio read by	Bill Wallis
Cover artist	Honeycomb Animation
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids
Release number	4
Genre	Children's horror
Publisher	Scholastic UK (Hippo)
Publication date	19 January 2001
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	304
ISBN	9780439998185
OCLC	45853994
Preceded by	Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids
Followed by	Nasty Little Beasts

More Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids is a collection of spooky short stories for children, published in 2001 by Scholastic UK. Written by British author Jamie Rix, it's the fourth book in the popular Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids series. This book was special because it came out after the Grizzly Tales cartoon show started on ITV's CITV. It's also the last book in the original series and has the most stories, with twenty tales to make you shiver!

Spooky Stories and Lessons Learned

The Prank That Backfired: Knock Down Ginger

In the town of Nimby, Mr. Thrips, an insect expert, was not liked by his rich neighbors. His house was full of insects, making it look messy. The Pie family, especially Amelia Pie, wanted him gone.

Amelia's son, Ginger, and his friend Milo, often picked on Mr. Thrips. They vandalized his garden and yelled insults. Milo's sister, Liza, thought it was mean, but the boys ignored her. Ginger even called Mr. Thrips ugly, saying he looked like an insect.

One day, Ginger and Milo decided to play "Knock Down Ginger" at Mr. Thrips' house. They would ring his doorbell and run away. They knew it took him ten minutes to get to the door. They played this game all day long.

Ginger then jumped into Mr. Thrips' back garden to destroy his termite mounds. He felt strange vibrations. Suddenly, Mr. Thrips appeared. Ginger quickly ran back to the front door and rang the bell again. The door flew open, and Mr. Thrips pulled Ginger inside.

Inside, Ginger saw insects everywhere. Mr. Thrips warned him to stop the pranks. He showed Ginger how his termites were eating wood so fast it made a chair float! When Ginger left, he told Milo and Liza that Mr. Thrips was serious. Milo didn't believe him and went to ring the doorbell himself.

Thirty minutes later, Ginger, bored, went home. He realized he'd forgotten his keys. He pressed his own doorbell, and the ground began to shake. Mr. Thrips' termites had eaten through his shoes and then his whole body. Ginger's mom, Amelia, opened the door to find him standing like a statue. When she touched him, he turned into sawdust. Her house then collapsed. Across the street, Mr. Thrips' termites were full and happy.

The Greedy Eater: The Upset Stomach

Ethel Turnip loved to eat, eat, eat! One day, she read about a farm that raised animal stomachs. She demanded her parents get her one for Christmas, promising to treat it like a pet and call it "Rover."

A smelly package arrived with a stomach as big as a basketball. It sprayed acid that dissolved the tablecloth. Ethel used Rover to eat even more at Christmas dinner. But Rover became a problem, always following her and waking her up. When she walked it, kids would laugh until their clothes fell apart.

Ethel tried to abandon Rover in a park, but a policeman brought it back. Furious, Ethel put Rover in six plastic bags and took a bus to the countryside. She threw it into a cow herd, telling her parents Rover had died.

But Rover got its revenge! It ate everything in the countryside and kept growing until it reached Ethel's home. The Prime Minister even sent the army with tanks, but Rover's acid melted them. It was called "The Killer Stomach" on the news.

Ethel tried to make Rover leave, but it ignored her. Her dad went to get indigestion tablets. When he came back, Rover was rolling away, and Ethel was gone! The stomach exploded, and an undigested Ethel flew through her bedroom window. After that, Ethel was never greedy again. Her sense of smell was ruined, making all food taste bad.

The Prank Caller: The Gas Man Cometh

Stefan Krott loved telephones from the moment he was born. He loved making prank calls, even to emergency services. When his parents took away his phone, he bought a mobile and kept going.

One day, a voice called him, saying, "Stefan, we've got your number." It was "The Gas Man," offering him helium to change his voice. Stefan accepted, hoping to sound like the Queen. He skipped school to wait for the delivery.

Two men in suits and a man in a boilersuit (the Gas Man) arrived with a gas cylinder. The Gas Man gave it to Stefan for free. Stefan read the instructions and used the helium. His voice became high-pitched, and he fooled everyone he called.

After telling a man he'd be sent to the Tower, Stefan realized he was floating into space! He grabbed onto a satellite. His phone rang, and the caller said, "Game over! You lose!" Then the phone died.

The Clever Fox: The Urban Fox

Lord and Lady Blunderbuss moved into a busy neighborhood with their horses and beagles. They visited Mr. and Mrs. Smith, pretending to be friendly. They soon found the Smiths' daughter, Parker, and her pet fox, Elvis, eating breakfast.

The Blunderbuss couple declared they would get rid of the fox, even though Elvis was part of the family. Thirty minutes later, a bugle blared. The Blunderbuss couple had gathered their fox hunting team! Parker told her parents not to worry, and Elvis got ready to outsmart them.

Elvis cleverly disguised himself as different garden ornaments, like a bird bath and a fishing gnome, as the horses and beagles jumped over fences. The hunt became so tiring that the Blunderbuss couple decided city life wasn't for them. They packed up and moved away.

The neighbors threw a street party for Elvis, thanking the Urban Fox. Meanwhile, the Blunderbuss couple had to pay for all the property damage they caused.

The Non-Believer: Spoilsport

The Pinchguts were a mean family. The parents were so mean they named their children Girl and Baby. Girl loved to ruin other people's fun. She once told Baby his birthday presents before he opened them.

One evening, Baby's milk tooth fell out. He was excited about the Tooth Fairy. Girl snapped that fairies weren't real. But the next morning, Baby found money under his pillow. Girl insisted their parents put it there, but Ma and Pa were confused.

The Tooth Fairy, who was fighting a bacteria army, heard Girl's words. She and her team planned to get revenge. Baby was still crying, so Ma and Pa locked him in the garden. Girl went to bed, happy.

She woke up to dental equipment in her mouth! A voice groaned, saying they almost took her tonsils. A tooth flew out of Girl's mouth. The Tooth Fairy appeared, scolding Girl for not believing. She used a pneumatic drill, and Girl fainted. The next morning, Girl's parents made jokes about her missing tooth, while Baby was happy in the garden.

Girl later gave an old dog a bone, which broke a tooth. She put it under her pillow. The Tooth Fairy came, and Girl grabbed her, demanding to be taken to her castle to get her teeth back. The Tooth Fairy explained that Girl's teeth were strong enough to fix her castle.

At the castle, the Tooth Fairy's team reluctantly gave Girl her teeth back. The bacteria army attacked, leaving a brown sludge puddle. Girl's remains were returned to her family and buried in a fizzy drink bottle. Her parents were happy it was cheaper than a coffin. Baby was excited for his next tooth to fall out. When the Tooth Fairy came for it, he asked her to say hello to Father Christmas, leprechauns, the Easter Bunny, the stork, and the Yeti!

The Filthy Boy: Dirty Bertie

Mr. and Mrs. Barf were the cleanest people ever, taking three baths a day. They hoped their cleanliness would get them into Heaven. But their son, Bertie, was always dirty. He only used his toothbrush to clean his trainers.

Bertie refused to bathe, saying he didn't want to drown the insects in his hair. His parents tried to clean him while he slept, but Bertie had homemade booby traps. Bertie believed other boys were cowards for not staying dirty. When his parents asked what he wanted to be, he said an astronaut.

His parents decided to shock him into bathing by placing a "lonely hearts" ad for a girlfriend. Five girls came, but they were terrified of Bertie's filth. The fifth girl even saw the fourth one vomiting in a hedge.

The sixth visitor was PygAlien, an alligator-kangaroo-blobby creature who escaped from planet Tharg. He needed Bertie's rocket because Bertie smelled like an astronaut. As they went to the garden, the front door burst open, and a wrinkled alien named Putrid entered with two walruses.

In the shed, PygAlien was frustrated because Bertie wouldn't show him how the rocket worked. Putrid entered and decided she preferred Bertie because of his face and smell. The walruses grabbed Bertie, and they all left to get him married. Back on Earth, PygAlien lived happily with Mr. and Mrs. Barf, disguised as a clean Bertie.

The Clumsy Girl: The People Potter

In Worcester, England, in 1777, a legend began about Josiah Reeks, the potter. Children playing accidentally destroyed his art. Three days later, he appeared with twelve life-size porcelain statues. This was the legend of The People Potter.

In the present day, there was Greta Gawky, a very clumsy girl who was 2 m (6 ft 7 in) tall. She once caused a car to fall into a river while fishing! Children would tease her, and she even slapped a dog up a tree by accident. Her parents hid a valuable Ming vase from her.

When Greta was nine, the vase kept getting into trouble because of her clumsiness. Her parents warned her that if she touched it again, she would become a celery-eating maid, and they would be sold into slavery. Greta hated celery, so she tried her best to obey.

To celebrate, Greta was given a tiny porcelain figure of Josiah Reeks. She thought he was a waiter at first. Her parents told her the legend of The People Potter. Greta felt uncomfortable with the figure, especially after reading a message on its side: "I'm coming back from China" if it broke. This made her even clumsier.

One messy morning, her parents left, telling her to clean the house. Greta fell down the stairs, crashed through the floor into the cellar, and then through a pipe, landing in the bathroom. Determined to save the Ming vase, she tried to get back to the hallway. But her actions caused a domino effect of destruction until the house collapsed, leaving only her and the front door. The Josiah Reeks figure was in pieces.

The front door opened to reveal the real Josiah Reeks with a potter's wheel. Later, Greta's parents came home to find their house gone, but a porcelain statue of their daughter stood there. The Ming vase was still safe, though!

The Sore Loser: It's Only a Game, Sport!

This story is about a schoolboy named Bruce, whose parents were famous athletes. Bruce was terrible at every sport and always lost his temper. He would cheat and make excuses. His parents, Shane and Sheila, encouraged this bad behavior, teaching him that losing was not an option.

After Bruce was banned from school sports and then expelled for burning down the school, he stayed home. He invented his own games to play against his younger sister, Kitty, always changing the rules so he would win.

Kitty was also bad at sports and preferred farming. Bruce always had an advantage. He cheated in boxing and basketball. In "Bush Snooker" (a game with hedgehogs and kangaroos), Bruce untied the kangaroos when it was Kitty's turn. During "Trivial Barbeques," he gave her all the hard questions. At bedtime, he would race her and put a spider in her pyjamas.

Kitty put up with the games but hated Bruce's threats and bragging. One day, she suggested they play Snakes and Ladders. Kitty got lucky dice rolls and took a big lead. Bruce got frustrated and demanded the rules change: ladders would send players down, and snakes would send them up. Kitty agreed and kept winning.

Bruce reached the top of a ladder and insisted the rules change back. He accused Kitty of cheating. He threw the game board out of the house, tripped over the pet koala, stumbled over the balcony ladder, and fell towards a group of excited snakes.

The Tiny Victim: Fast Food

An ambulance was rushing a patient to the hospital after a hit and run. A policeman asked the patient what happened. The patient explained that he saw a car and tried to eat it because he wanted to eat fast food.

The policeman pointed out that a car was too big to eat. The patient admitted he realized that just before it hit him, saying it looked smaller from far away. The paramedics tried to give the patient medicine, but the policeman insisted on getting more answers. The patient, who was actually a flattened hedgehog, died.

The Missing Sock: Sock Shock

Nick loved being different. He never wore shoes, wore hats inside out, and ignored warning signs. One day, while waiting for his socks to wash, the washing machine froze. When it finished, one sock was gone!

Nick called the police and made missing posters. There were no fingerprints in the machine. Suddenly, Nick was grabbed by forty long fingers and pulled into the washing machine. He traveled through pipes and landed in a smelly cave.

A light revealed a scaly goblin with bulging eyes and sharp teeth. Nick feared the goblin would kill him, but the goblin said no. He collected socks for injured worms to use as sleeping bags. Nick was a mistake, mistaken for a sock. The goblin put on makeup and left for a documentary interview, telling Nick he could leave. After that, Nick never, ever wore shoes again.

The Nose Picker: Revenge Of The Bogeyman

"Digger" Dee always picked her nose. Her parents were disgusted. Her father even yelled that if she dug deep enough, she might pull out the Bogeyman. Dee was scared, but she picked her nose so much that her hand would do it even when she slept.

One night, a voice told her to dig deeper. She looked around but found no one. She picked her nose again and pulled out a creature that looked like a Yorkshire pudding with limbs and a warty face, holding a pickaxe. It was the Bogeyman, furious that Dee had kicked him out of his home. "Just because we're small and easily flicked doesn't mean that bogeys don't have feelings too," he snapped, before eating her.

Dee slid through the Bogeyman's insides, landing in caves. A giant finger pulled her out, then a giantess stepped on her. She landed in a dog bowl. The giants' son tried to eat her but spat her out. She landed back in the Bogeyman's arms and promised to never pick her nose again. The Bogeyman was happy and crawled back into her nose. Dee kept her promise, but the temptation was too strong, so she started picking her ears instead. But beware, she might pull out The Waxwoman, who is even worse!

The Fake Crier: Crocodile Tears

Mr. and Mrs. Howling cried very easily. Gwendolyn, their daughter, used this to her advantage. She would pretend to cry to avoid homework, get new clothes, eat fast food, and watch TV. Her parents always believed her.

One Christmas, one of her fake tears turned into a tiny duck. The duck warned her that Sakusaki the Old Croc, the father of crocodiles, would get her. A glass tear fell out, showing Gwendolyn's face. Gwendolyn didn't believe it.

Later, at a pantomime based on Peter Pan, Gwendolyn threw tantrums instead of crying. She fought with audience members and screamed until her parents bought her a program and merchandise. Noticing people were annoyed, she decided to cry for sympathy. Mr. Howling gasped as Gwendolyn's eyes turned green. A giant tear fell out and turned into a giant crocodile, which ate her!

The crocodile then imitated Gwendolyn, wailing that he ruined the evening. The audience applauded, thinking it was part of the play. Mr. and Mrs. Howling cried for ten years.

The Thumb Sucker: The Pie Man

Donald had sucked his thumb since he was a baby. A midwife warned his parents that "The Pie Man" might visit him if he didn't stop, and chop off his thumbs to hold up pie pastry. Donald's parents tried everything to make him stop, even using a dummy. But Donald just sucked the dummy everywhere.

At eleven years old, Donald still sucked his old dummy. When his family visited Loch Ness, his mother pulled the dummy out with a monkey wrench and threw it into the loch. Donald jumped in to get it but retreated when he heard growling.

On the way home, Donald was restless. He stuck his thumb in his mouth and was happy. His parents, still celebrating, bought scuba diving gear and dove into Loch Ness to find the dummy. To their horror, Donald rejected it, saying his thumb tasted better.

At home, a kind pie seller arrived. Donald's parents told him not to suck his thumb. Donald watched the salesman from his window. The salesman floated up on the steam from his pies. He asked for Donald's hands, but Donald refused to stop sucking. The man tried to pull his hands away, but they wouldn't move. Donald was dragged into an empty pie dish. Donald's parents broke into the room to find it empty, except for a steaming pie on the window sill.

The Vegetable Hater: Bunny Boy

Bill hated vegetables. He let Tubs, the neighborhood rabbit, sneak into the garden to eat his mother's vegetable patch. His mother started guarding the garden with a shotgun. The next morning, she served him a fresh cabbage. Bill tried to get rid of it by painting it like a football or burying it, but his mother always found it.

Desperate, Bill hid the cabbage under his anorak and snuck out to find Tubs in Farmer Popple's cornfield. He rested by Tubs' rabbit hole, and a combine harvester ran them over.

Bill woke up in the hospital. The next day, he was surprised to find himself happily eating every vegetable. He started having dreams about a rabbit eating vegetables and woke up with soil in his mouth. One day, he found a fluffy tail growing! He ran to show his mother, finding the doctor from the hospital in the kitchen.

The doctor explained that the accident had mixed Bill and Tubs' bodies. Bill's rabbit instincts would develop. Bill's mother demanded he be changed back, but the doctor said it was impossible. Bill used his giant rabbit feet to kick open the back door and hopped out. He never returned, living in a nearby burrow, only visiting the garden at night for dinner.

The Spitter: Spit

A little boy spat on the pavement. He actually spat on a giant's shoe! The giant responded by spitting on him.

The Superstitious Girl: Superstitious Nonsense

Penelope Jane changed her name to Pylon because she was intensely paranoid about bad luck. She refused to say the number "six," shook hands with the postman for good luck, and recited the alphabet backward to keep her clothes clean.

One day, her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Gaslamp, found an alder tree in the garden. Pylon claimed it was a witch's sign, but her father pulled it out. Pylon decided to divorce her parents for ignoring her.

The next day, Pylon lied to her parents, saying a vampire would attack her if she did homework and that teachers caused insanity. Her parents agreed to let her stay home and gave her all their money. Pylon used the money to travel the world. She returned, demanding the house based on an Incan belief she found in Peru. Mr. and Mrs. Gaslamp moved out.

On Friday 13th, Pylon prepared her house against bad luck. She panicked when she broke her own rules while walking to the shop. She dragged a giant metal box into the garden and climbed inside for safety. A cow fell out of the sky and crushed the box. Mr. and Mrs. Gaslamp moved back into their home and put up a plaque on her grave, happy she was gone.

The Daydreamer: Head in the Clouds

Brian, nicknamed "Butterfly Brain," was always daydreaming and very forgetful. His parents would often have to search for him when he didn't come home from school. One afternoon, he walked into a field with two kites flying. He pretended to be a kite and ran down a hill.

A strong wind tripped him, and he fell, snapping his head off his neck! His head flew into a tree. He could still feel his body, but his toes felt sensations from his mouth. He found his head resting on bracken.

Headless Brian walked through town, carrying his head. He entered a store called The Body Shop. The shop assistant examined his head, finding it full of clouds. Brian could either switch heads or wait an hour for his head to be cleaned. He chose to wait and received a red ticket and a silver key.

In the waiting room, Brian daydreamed he was Rapunzel and threw his hair (and the key and ticket) out the window. When the shop assistant called him, Brian couldn't find his ticket. The assistant was hesitant to give him his head's box. Finally, she let him take it home, telling him to wait for the eyes to open to unlock it. Brian got home and realized he couldn't find his key either. The eyes in his head opened and blinked at the giant clouds around his face.

The Biter: When the Bed Bugs Bite

Hannibal loved the sound people made when he bit them. For nine years, he bit everything—people, animals, objects—making his teeth sharp like fangs. His parents were embarrassed, but Hannibal enjoyed the attention. He even bit off some of their fingers.

One evening, they confronted him with a broken car headrest and a bill from the Natural History Museum for teeth damage on T-Rex bones. Hannibal ignored them and ate the items. His parents sent him to bed early, saying they hoped the bed bugs bit him.

Hannibal fell asleep, confused. He had a nightmare about a giant "queen bug" that made children disappear. He was teleported to his bedroom, where the queen bug dripped black saliva on him, which hardened like a cocoon.

Hannibal woke up disturbed but kept biting at school. He was suspended for biting the headmistress's bottom. His teeth started to itch and bite on their own. When they bit through a lollipop lady's sign, she was hit by a truck. She stood up, and feelers appeared under her hat.

At home, an exterminator arrived on a motorbike to remove bed bugs from Hannibal's room. She vacuumed Hannibal's pyjamas and left. As Hannibal slept, insects from his pyjamas bit him. He had another nightmare about the queen bug. In the morning, he terrified his parents and everyone at school. The headmistress yelled for an exterminator. Hannibal looked in a window and saw his reflection looked like a bed bug humanoid. The exterminator rode into the playground and crushed him with a shoe. Far away, an old lady pressed the erase button on her answerphone.

The Smarty-Pants: The Decomposition of Delia Deathabridge

Delia, the daughter of Oxford University professors, refused to do schoolwork and mocked other students. One day, her English teacher was replaced by Miss Whetstone. Delia couldn't outsmart her and was told to do her homework. Delia said she didn't need to, but Miss Whetstone suggested harder homework.

Delia reluctantly wrote an essay called "My Worst Nightmare" about a beast turning her stupid. She stopped mid-sentence when the school bell rang. At home, Delia shoved the essay under her bed. As she slept, the book shook, filling the air with foot odour. A picture of a man with long fingernails moved and told her to finish the story.

Miss Whetstone was not impressed when Delia blamed the beast. She made Delia finish the essay in class. Delia quickly wrote a happy ending where the beast became a friendly, wish-granting troll and disappeared. Miss Whetstone rejected it, saying the twist ending didn't work. She smirked and said she would rewrite it. Delia fainted.

The story ends by saying Delia returned to school the next day as a ditz. Miss Whetstone's rewrite was about a troll pushing his fingernails into Delia's ears, bursting her brain, eating her intelligence, and then leaving to write the Encyclopædia Britannica.

The Hair-Obsessed Girl: The Grass Monkey

Ten-year-old Spike had spiky hair and lived with his sick mother in a caravan. They had an underweight cow named Ruby that couldn't make milk. One morning, Spike left for school, leaving the door open. Ruby saw a brown-tailed creature sneak inside.

After school, Spike worked at a hairdresser's. A beautiful blonde girl, Esmerelda, was the only customer. She wanted to be a fashion model and win a competition. Spike, who liked her, offered her tea, but she pushed it, soaking his trousers.

Esmerelda's parents arrived, scolding her. Esmerelda claimed she and Spike were dating. Spike was confused but thrilled. Esmerelda asked him to steal shampoo for her. Spike took a dozen bottles and stuffed them in a bin bag with trimmed hair. He showered, changed, and covered himself in hair, remembering Esmerelda liked hairy men.

His mother told him a monkey-like hobgoblin had visited her and given her magical grass seeds to plant daily. Spike was distracted and left to deliver the shampoo. Esmerelda screamed, thinking Spike was a monkey. She was furious he forgot the "Nowtincide" shampoo and ordered him to get it tomorrow.

The next day, Spike felt guilty. His mother begged him to look at the fresh grass Ruby was eating. After school, Sandra the hairdresser fired him. Esmerelda kicked him when he said he couldn't get the shampoo. Spike ran home, stole the magic seeds, and offered them to her. Esmerelda ignored his warning and ate the whole sack.

The next morning, Spike's mother was sad about her missing seeds. An excited Esmerelda knocked, her blonde hair now a train of grass. She just needed to dye it blonde, but grass grew rapidly all over her body. Ruby rushed over and ate her. The magic seeds kept growing inside Ruby, turning her fur into grass. Ruby never made milk again, but Spike and his mother became millionaires, traveling the world and showing off Ruby the Mow Cow in freak shows and commercials.

How the Book Was Made

To celebrate and promote the new Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids cartoon show, Jamie Rix wrote More Grizzly Tales. He had been planning the TV show since 1993, sending his ideas to many television studios. His company, Elephant, and Honeycomb Animation got a deal with ITV for two series, with a budget of over US$2.5 million for 30 episodes. The cartoon began airing on CITV in January 2000. The first three books in the series were re-released with new covers designed by Honeycomb Animation, looking like screenshots from the cartoon.

Book History

This was the only book in the original series that didn't have an illustrator for its first edition. The front cover was designed by Honeycomb Animation, the same team that made the animated TV show. The first series of the cartoon had just aired the year before, in 2000.

The book is no longer printed since 2010. It was briefly available as a Kindle E-book in 2011, published by Orion.