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Bedtime Stories That Will Terrify Children Receives Death Threat

September 15, 2026

Bedtime Stories That Will Terrify Childrenhas received a death threat from an anonymous source.

The message demands that we immediately remove the book from social media, websites, and all other public references—or face threats of horrific violence against ourselves, our families, our friends, and, for good measure, our “worthless publisher.”

Well.

We would consider this missive evidence of a dissatisfied reader.

Has any other children's book in the history of Western Literature generated such opprobrium?

Regrettably, yes.

It appears that we are not even original in this regard. Other children's authors have received death threats over their books, which is both reassuring to one's literary vanity and somewhat discouraging as a commentary upon Western Civilization.

Lewis Carroll, so far as we can determine, escaped the distinction.

At times such as this, inevitably, one reflects upon what he—or she—might have done wrong. What story or character might have tipped this reader—likely a loosely tethered one, but still, a reader—over the steep edge of sanity and into the Slough of Despond below?

Could it have been the Evil Squirrel, in the Bedtime Story of the same name?

But the Squirrel wasn’t really that bad a guy, once you got to know him.

Could it have been Nephilim, the Fallen Indian Angel, doomed to ride the Ghost Ship upon the Grey Lakes unto eternity?

But even here, Nephilim himself admits that he probably deserved worse for the bad deeds of his youth.

We may never know.

What we do know is that the threat has been reported to law enforcement, and the FBI is investigating.

As for ourselves, we recall Clint Eastwood inUnforgiven, standing amid the consequences of considerably more violent circumstances than the publication of a children’s book.

There are moments when retreat is appropriate.

We do not believe that publishing bedtime stories is one of them.