When Is Scary Too Delicious?

Last week I talked about my new picture book, Halloween Forest, and about the function that fear has in a story, even for very young children. Fear tucked inside the safety of a story can allow us an exciting chill without submitting ourselves to danger. It allows us to move through our own feelings and emerge on the other side, having grown larger.

But that leaves us with a question, an important one. When is scary entirely too delicious? The truth is—and it’s an important truth for those pre...