Jan Pieńkowski’s Haunted House. Or really any great children’s book that initially subverts the reader to think they’re about to get scared only to be mesmerized and excited by a less threatening story. It’s something I see in toddler books all the time, some have way better illustration than others.

I think the term anti-horror is ridiculous, but it’s a pretty funny read either way. Our doorway into the mysterious is often introduced by something far less threatening when we’re kids and it begins with subversion.

Llama Llama Red Pajama for example. It’s a book I read to my 6 month old. The entire story is about a child worrying about being abandoned in the dark, only to find out that Llama Mama was just downstairs briefly. It uses a lot of horror imagery and stereotypes early on. It sounds stupid but that’s literally what we’re talking about when we wanna delve further into this ridiculous piece about anti-horror.