Can you give an approximate timeframe for when you were a child? e.g. is this book about 20 years old? 30 years old?

i would say 15-20 years ago. i remember being in elementary/middle school at the time

Any hints about the book cover-art or title?

it was in a book of other short stories, so i cannot remember if there was any art for that story in particular. and i cannot remember the short story book's name or design, and if i knew the title, i wouldnt have bothered everyone :)

I found this book: 3:33 The Darkest Hour

mmm, close. but that book seems to be pretty recent. i would have read the story about 15-20 years ago.

I've just confirmed that it is not one of the stories in the "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" series.

Cuckoo Clock of Doom?

Anya Meets Mr. Yes? voices.yahoo.com/anya-meets-mr-yes-4250373.html

no, that is just the time her monster comes out. the story im looking for had the 3's actually coming out of the clock and attacking the child. im almost at the point of thinking this was just a nightmare of mine, and i should just write the story myself...

The ST:TNG episode Cause and Effect involves a prominent repetition of the number 3. Maybe that will take the edge off while you keep searching.

I remember reading this story, though I can’t recall the title; think it was by Spider Robinson or Harlan Ellison.

Pratchett's The Color of Magic (Discworld) has a different number as the monster.

U2's Bono sung "3:33 when the numbers fell off the clock face" in the song 'Unknown Caller'. Maybe he knows this mystery story ;)

goodreads.com/shelf/show/childrens-horror this has a lot of children's books that were scary, most of it is Goosebumps, but you might find what you are looking for in here

is that book you are referring to is - Aunty Nelly's new house - a short story ?

I assume you went to school in the U.S., I don't have the time or attention span, but this list would probably be a pretty common list of scary stories for elementary school students across the U.S. Going through the list by date you may find something acpl.lib.in.us/children/scarystories_grades.html Scholastic books were common and probably still are among elementary schools, so scholastic.com might be a good place to search.

I found this, which features 3:33 a lot, but nothing about the numbers being monsters. Eternal Darkness was a horror game for Gamecube, which came out around 10 years ago...

Here's another horror story centering around 3:33 -- this one in Portuguese! amzn.com/B0091W3C1M

@DjangoReinhardt so close! but the publication date shows 2012....i definitely read this story when i was a child....

Amusingly, the code return 3 'try later' was able to defeat the certificate-revocation logic in most browsers youtube.com/…

I thought it might be a scrambled memory of a children's horror story I once read about a digital clock with a curse on it. That turns out to be David Langford'3:47 A.M.'(1983) and it's not the one. I wish I hadn't gone looking though - some stories are better forgotten.

Are you absolutely sure that the numbers are 3s?

Did a search on Google for "3:33" OR "03:33" clock OR radio. Browsed the results up to the 30-somethingth page. Found (among scores of DMCA takedowns) the following: Necroscope: The Touch by Brian Lumley, which seems to feature characters One, Two, and Three, who come out at 3:33 am. It's from 2006, though.

@zompz, did you ever find the answer? Do you have any information you can add that could help us? I think this is now the highest voted unanswered question.

The OP suggested it's probably not an R.L. Stine story. To be absolutely sure, I asked him. Turns out it's not him, but it looks like I piqued his curiosity. It was nice of him to respond so quickly. twitter.com/RL_Stine/status/619932978836320256

@ncm Looks like you were onto something there! :-)

Just to let you all know, I've tweeted ZompZ so that she knows about the solution! :-)

I just got an email from Google+ suggesting I read this question.

I understand the history behind this white whale, but shouldn't the title and text be edited mention the number 5 instead of 3? It's factually incorrect.

@ThePopMachine: I think changing the title at this point would be needlessly confusing.

@Martha It's big enough and historic enough that it may be time. I'm not sure of the best way to do it. I'll bring it up on meta.

Only if you can use strike-through in titles, otherwise leave it alone.