This was the only one of the short story collections to not receive an illustrated novella adaption from the French line, Chair de Poule Illustre.
It contains the following stories:
- "The Haunted Guitar" - When Jeffrey steals a guitar from a burned-out store, he discovers too late that it's haunted.
- "Tune in Tomorrow" - Elizabeth finds herself growing hooked on a new soap opera, where events in the show begin to reflect themselves in her life.
- "Live Bait" - Timmy hates fish, only to get dragged on a vacation to a lake where all everyone does is fish.
- "Something Strange About Marci" - Marci, a strange new girl, has been watching the narrator and his friends at play for some time. He doesn't understand why and vows to find out just what she's really up to.
- "The Ghost Sitter" - Ray and Mike's family have moved into a new town, and the boys end up house-sitting for their neighbors, only to come to believe the place is haunted.
- "Fun With Spelling" - Kari discovers a book of spells and starts using it to make bad things to happen to her enemies.
- "Matt's Lunch Box" - Matt Green's mom buys him a new lunch box, which turns out to be occupied by monsters.
- "Stuck in 1957" - Shana finds a pair of glasses that send her back in time to 1957 when she puts them on.
- "Mirror Mirror on the Wall" - Bonnie Sue Bowers is obsessed with her looks, until her reflection, who's sick of her behavior, decides to switch places with her.
- "What's Cooking?" - Two kids discover the ghost of an insane cleaver-wielding lunch lady haunts their new summer school.
The stories contain examples of:
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The Haunted Guitar
- An Aesop: This story has one about how cutting corners is bad.
- Didn't Think This Through: Jeffrey decided to use a vacuum cleaner to de-weed his front lawn. It worked great for the most part, it sucked the weeds right out, along with the rest of the tulips and dirt in the garden. His best friend, Beth, even points out how stupid that was.
- Exact Words: Jeffrey asks Willy if he can play with his guitar all the time. Willy replies that he can - as he is unable to stop by the time the story ends.
Tune In Tomorrow
- Beware of Vicious Dog: The final episode of Looking Toward Tomorrow that Elizabeth watches involves Elinor opening a door and coming face-to-face with a vicious rottweiler, who pounces on her just as the episode ends. Elizabeth almost immediately then hears barking coming from the front door, and she goes to answer it. That's when the story cuts to the actual main character of the story, with her friend Lisa commenting that Elizabeth should know that this trope is about to happen to her.
- Easy Amnesia: Parodied, where someone in a TV show Elizabeth is watching loses her memory only to get it back quite soon, and Elizabeth comments that this only happens on TV.
- Fade to Black: "In-universe" on the show Looking Toward Tomorrow, this happens when Elinor tries to revive her mother and she wakes up, asking who she is.
- Rapid-Fire "No!": Elizabeth has this when she finally sees the episode of Looking Toward Tomorrow end with the main character getting mauled by a rottweiler, which she fears would happen to her.
- Show Within a Show: The story ends with the reveal that it's about a girl watching a TV show called "Life with Elizabeth".
- Soft Glass: Elinor from Looking Toward Tomorrow is startled by the chime of a clock and drops her glass cup on the ground, sending shards of glass flying everywhere. The narration even points out that Elinor somehow wasn't hurt. Elizabeth immediately responds the same way right afterwards, even touching glass shards on the floor, but also is unhurt.
Live Bait
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: While fishing with Duke after the old man lets them, Tim is exasperated that they can't find any fish, but then the biggest fish in the lake pops up right in front of them.Tim: I'm bored. Let's go back. There are no fish out here. That old man doesn't anything about — FIIIISSSHHH!
- Big "NO!": Tim lets one out when he is about to be swallowed by a gigantic fish.
- Eye Scream: Duke bothers Tim at the beginning of the story by taking a dead fish and plucking it's eye out. Not only that, but he then puts it into his mouth. Tim is understandably horrified and almost throws up.
- Insistent Terminology: Tim is constantly teased by Duke that he's afraid of fish. But Tim keeps insisting that he just really doesn't like fish, that's all.
- Take My Hand!: Duke does this with Tim when the latter falls through rotting wooden planks on the dock, about to drop into the water below.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Tim says this almost word for word when he sees that the only boat he and Duke can use in the lake is very conspicuous looking.
Something Strange About Marci
- Contagious Laughter: The protagonist points out this trope practically by name. When one of his friends starts screeching with laughter, he and the others joined in with her, laughing so hard.
- Foreshadowing: The narrator of "Something Strange About Marci" says at one point that their friend was "screeching". Because they are all orangutans.
- So Much for Stealth: Marci is trying to follow the protagonist, but he's alerted to her when she steps on a twig and coughs behind him.
- Tomato Surprise: The story ends with one. The narrator spends the whole story wondering what's up with Marci, why she carries around a strange briefcase, and why she doesn't look like any of his friends. The twist is that Marci is a human scientist and the narrator and his friends are orangutans.
The Ghost Sitter
- Neglected Garden: The Hodges house has this, with overgrown weeds, which Ray and Mike take as a sign that the house is haunted. It actually isn't - the Hodge residents are just bad gardeners. It's the house that's right next to theirs that's haunted.
Fun With Spelling
- Actually Pretty Funny: Lisa ends up being cursed to the point that she starts burping loudly in class. Even though the teacher, Mr. Pratt, tries to get all the laughing classmates to quiet down, she continues burping so much that he ends up starting to laugh as well.
- Double Take: Kari is reading through a spell book that her Aunt Vera had given her as a parting gift, and she looks through the Table of Contents. She reads, "Weather Spells, Love Spells, Beauty Spells, Enemy Spells..." She then stops to reread the "Enemy Spells" part, and she immediately thinks that's cool and focuses on that to try.
- Garlic Is Abhorrent: Kari's Aunt Vera wears a garlic necklace. She says it's to ward off evil spirits.
- Ghostwriter: Real-life example — "Fun with Spelling" is confirmed to have been ghostwritten by Carloyn Crimi, who also ghostwrote the Ghosts of Fear Street books Go To Your Tomb — Right Now! and Three Evil Wishes
- Jerkass: Kari uses the spell book to torment Lisa McFly. However, even though we have only Kari's insistence that Lisa's awful she never acts that bad to justify Kari's harassment.
- Mocking Sing-Song: When Lisa starts flapping her arms trying to fly (just like the curse Kari had put on her the night before), the class once again laughs and starts chanting, "Lisa McFly thinks she can fly!"
- People Fall Off Chairs: Toby, Kari's best friend, was laughing so hard at Lisa's burping that he fell out of his chair.
- Spiteful Spit: Part of the ritual that Kari partakes in from the book is spitting into a jar with a note expressing your hatred for the victim you are about to curse.
Matt's Lunch Box
- Here We Go Again!: At the end of the story, after Matt gets rid of his monster-occupied lunchbox, he's very unhappy to receive a similarly monster-occupied thermos.
Stuck in 1957
- Berserk Button: Shanna takes her hair very seriously, and is outraged when her 1957!mom ruins her new look. Shanna decides she'd rather stay in 1957 since other girls will have hair like her's and she won't seem weird.
- Mental Time Travel: This story is about a girl who finds a pair of glasses that send her to the eponymous year. Only for some reason the girl appears to have a completely separate life in this year, including another family, so it's more like she's been sent into another universe.
- Time Travel Episode: "Stuck in 1957" is exactly what it sounds like — a girl who gets sent back in time to 1957. As mentioned in Mental Time Travel this is a rather odd example as Shanna doesn't just travel back to 1957, she somehow finds herself with a family, friends, and entire life during this period almost as if she's been brought into an alternate universe. What makes things more difficult is that all of these people are familiar with Shanna, to the point her 1957!mom assumes Shanna's in some sort of play when she sees and hears Shanna's 90s clothes and lingo.
- Totally Radical: Shanna's 90s lingo puts her at odds with 1950s sensibilities during her time in 1957, though she thankfully doesn't overdo it.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
- Magic Mirror: This story is about a mirror that lets the reflection switch places with its original.
What's Cooking?
- Darker and Edgier: This story is much more intense than the rest of the stories, as it is basically a slasher movie but toned down a bit for kids.
- Here We Go Again!: The story ends with Robert's mother saying "Chop Suey" three times, despite the kids protesting.
- Speak of the Devil: Saying the evil ghost's cruel nickname — Chop Suey — three times is enough to summon her. Then inverted by saying it in reverse (as "Suey Chop") three times, which sends her back away.
