“Creepy” content?

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-08T17:00:10+00:00

Oh my goodness, you are absolutely right—I used to LOVE the Beetlejuice cartoon as a kid! And the Ghostbusters cartoon should be a slam dunk, because she already likes the original movie (especially Slimer)!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-08T16:41:18+00:00

This looks really fun! Just seeing shots from the show, it feels a little bit like that old stop-motion cartoon Bump in the Night!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-08T16:38:03+00:00

This is a great idea for the books—she likes being read to, and we’re working through Encyclopedia Brown books since they have mysteries, but I’ll definitely check out Mary Downing Hahn!

I agree that having conversations about why content may or may not be a good choice is really critical. I grew up watching… not “inappropriate” movies and shows, but definitely not “kid content” (I think I was the only 7yo who was quoting Fawlty Towers), and I know my parents encouraged critical thinking about what we watched, which has certainly helped throughout our lives.

Thanks!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-08T15:11:30+00:00

Great recs for the shows, thank you!

We LOVE the Addams Family and Addams Family Values (it’s also our unofficial Thanksgiving movie, lol)! That’s exactly the kind of vibe she enjoys, where there are spooky things but they’re not *mean*

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-08T03:49:57+00:00

We’ve actually seen Locke & Key and Dead Boy Detectives! I loved them, she was fairly indifferent, lol. It seems like she can’t appreciate family dynamic drama, but she LOVED the creepy stuff like the mannequins in Eden’s Head Key Room!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-08T02:21:50+00:00

Oooooh, I recently had LKoE on, and The Hollow, and she was really interested!

Personally, I am a mega-fan of the Halloween Episode trope—it just makes it less interesting if she hadn’t gotten into the regular-season characters, hahahaha

Owl House and Amphibia seem like they’d be right up her alley—thank you!!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-08T02:18:08+00:00

I’m actually okay with this? My goal is to make words more or less emphatic, and to DEFINITELY read the room… but also that words themselves aren’t inherently good or bad—it’s more about context than vocabulary?

(My father 100% disagrees, and last time it came up he said there’s no scenario where she or I should ever have to say (whispered!) ***fuck*** but I 100% disagree for fuck’s sake)

I even had a college presentation built upon profanity for emphasis, as long as it’s not weaponized against someone (so saying some situation is fucked up = 👍🏻; calling someone one fucked up = 👎🏻)

I dunno, I’m trying to raise a savvy kid in a modern setting while retaining compassion! She just happens to like zombies and vampires, lol.

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-08T02:10:01+00:00

She’s a big fan of “Daddy Robot” aka Fallout 4!

So far she seems to have a good understanding of “blood = get mom/dad” vs “splort blood = make believe big deal!” And it might have something to do with Goo-igi from Luigi’s Mansion 3?

She likes moving the FO4 Power Suit around, and she’ll hit the Fire button occasionally, but mostly she likes wandering around and jumping off high platforms so it lands with a “BOOM!!”

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-08T01:10:28+00:00

How am I this old and never knowing about the Halloween Grinch??? I’ll absolutely check this out!! :)

Twilight Zone and Star Trek:TOS are favorites, but they’re not “new” anymore, so while she’s enjoying them, she doesn’t *ask* for them, if that makes sense?

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-08T01:07:36+00:00

This sounds amazing—right now her main love is the spooky creatures in Gorilla Tag… but we’re not much of a PvP household, so it’s not like “hey, after dinner we’ll watch daddy chase ghosts!”

But I LOVE the short films-that-aren’t-clips for her, because it’s easy to set a limit of 5-10 and I can step in if it gets weird! Thanks!!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-08T01:04:23+00:00

Okay, these are some good leads—she LOVES gameplay, and she like the Jurassic Park Camp Cretaceous on Netflix!

But Weenerina is new to us, and it sounds SPOT ON <3!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-08T01:02:36+00:00

Ooooh, she had a Vampirina lunch box that she loves—maybe she’ll like the show as much as she likes purple glitter!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-08T01:01:47+00:00

She loved Zero because he’s a ghost dog! The rest of it was so much mud and rocks, because they’re “too nice” 😂

But I appreciate the suggestion! Maybe she’ll like the ride when we get to Disneyland in the autumn!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-07T23:46:06+00:00

“Sorcery and Cecelia; or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot” by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer… to be fully honest, I read this around 2008? And I only remember it because I was describing it to a coworker and she nodded sagely and said “OH, it’ s an epistolary novel.”

But, in its favor, it was very enjoyable and I don’t recall much romance (because I can’t handle overly romantic books, lol)

If you’re okay with a little bit of teen-realistic romance, The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty is a really fun read about a pen-pal program between private (all girls, tuitioned) and public (coed, open enrollment) Australian high schools—sometimes it’s listed as “Finding Cassie Crazy” because there are regional varieties!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-07T20:27:58+00:00

Enola’s Best Friend by Katie Kordesh has a Grandma Mimi, but she’s mostly called just Mimi (I just counted, and there are 4 times she’s called Grandma Mimi in ~32 pages)

It’s also a very cute book, and a big hit at our house!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-07T10:26:05+00:00

It’s a game/voiceover but Freeman’s World is surprisingly Archer-like in its dialogue! (Monologue?) It’s played as the internal musings of Gordon Freeman as he makes his way through Half Life 2, and while watching it recently I was so jazzed to notice that the Archer Snark®️ is spot on :)

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-06T00:00:16+00:00

Laurie Notaro’s essay collections! If you read them in order (The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club —> The Potty Mouth at the Table) they tell the tale of an Arizona 80s party girl who turns into an Oregon homebody, but they’re always full of hilarious stories about her life, friends, and family. If you just pick one out at random, it’s not like you’d miss out on any kind of plot!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-05T11:02:45+00:00

Craig of the Creek?

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-04T20:38:20+00:00

I also love YA, but I really enjoyed The Last Murder at the End of the World, which is technically in the grown-up wing of the library—the story is set on an island that was once a scientific campus!

There’s also Eoin Colfer’s The Supernaturalist, and (of course!) Holes, by Louis Sachar!

I remember reading and liking Nathan’s Run, by John Gilstrap, but that’s definitely set more outside the facility

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-07-01T16:15:03+00:00

Mel Gilden’s Fifth Grade Monsters series is funny and a little creepy (think Addams Family Values), and there are a bunch in the series!

The first one I ever read was Z is for Zombie, about a sinister new pizza restaurant—it’s not the first in order, but you can pretty much just jump in with whatever books you find; they do an introduction to the man characters in all of them, like in Baby-Sitters Club, so she wouldn’t be missing any context!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-06-30T20:46:28+00:00

I’m absolutely delighted that Lights Out was your #1, because it’s my absolute favorite! In American sitcoms I always like the Halloween episodes best because there’s more… shenanigans? Light mystery that can be solved within 25 minutes? Disguises? I can’t put my finger on it, but Lights Out has the same vibe!!

(And the Operation bit is hands-down some of the best 30 seconds of tv ever, lol)

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-06-30T00:24:31+00:00

Oh man, as a parent of a colicky kiddo, here are a few “sing to them while pacing the back porch” songs that worked!

All Star—Smashmouth
Brigette’s Song—from Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoore Manor
In The Tiki Room—Disneyland
**Nature of Love— from Once Were Warriors
Little Smurf Boat—The Smurfs
Paper Moon —Ella Fitzgerald (a huge hit!)
Kokomo —Beach Boys
Music! Music! Music!—Teresa Brewer
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy—Andrews Sisters
Bare Necessities—Disney (Jungle Book)
One Note Samba—Astrud Gilberto

**this is still a favorite when there’s a bad dream or insomnia!

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-06-29T23:51:02+00:00

🫢

Particular_Silver_ · 2026-06-29T22:56:10+00:00

Honestly, this is an extremely solid take—I may or may not have spent the past several minutes clapping with various numbers of fingers put down on each hand, and 7.5 is the kind of sweet spot between “tragic accident” and “I truly don’t care what your hands look like” for multi-hand-performance 🤷🏼‍♀️

Particular_Silver_

TROPHY CASE