More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark collected from folklore and retold by Alvin Schwartz, drawings by Stephen Gammell, 1984.
This is the second book in a series of popular ghost stories and American urban legends. Many of us who were children in the 1980s and 1990s heard these stories on school playgrounds, at summer camps, or at sleepovers, even if we didn’t read them in this book first. I found the stories in the first book in the series to be more familiar to me from my childhood than the ones in the second book, but there are still many popular and familiar ghost stories here. There is a section at the beginning of the book where the author/compiler discusses why stories like these have been popular for generations. In the back of the book, there is another section with more detailed information about the origins of the stories and their variants.
The drawings in the book also complement the stories well. They’re all in black-and-white and have an ethereal look, as those they were composed of spirits or smoke.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
Stories Included in the Book:
The stories are divided into sections by theme or by the effect that the stories are supposed to have.
When She Saw Him, She Screamed and Ran
This section has stories about ghosts.
Something Was Wrong – A man is walking down the street, but for some reason, everybody is afraid of him. What’s wrong?
The Wreck – A guy meets a girl at a dance … only to learn that she was killed before she got there.
One Sunday Morning – A woman goes to church on Sunday but discovers that this isn’t a normal church service.
Sounds – Some fishermen take shelter in an empty house during a storm and hear the sounds of a past murder.
A Weird Blue Light – The crew of a ship during the Civil War witness something very strange, possibly the ghost of a pirate ship.
Somebody Fell From Aloft – The ghost of a murdered sailor gets his revenge.
The Little Black Dog – A murderer is followed by the ghost of a dog.
Clinkity-Clink – A grave digger steals the silver dollars laid on the eyes of a corpse, but the dead woman wants them back. (This story is supposed to end with a jump scare, like ghost stories told aloud around a camp fire.)
She Was Spittin’ and Yowlin’ Just Like a Cat
This is a selection of strange stories about different topics.
The Bride – The famous story about a bride who plays hide-and-seek and accidentally gets locked in a trunk.
Rings on Her Fingers – A thief tries to steal the rings from a dead woman, only she may not be quite as dead as everyone thinks.
The Drum – Two young girls meet a gypsy girl with a special drum that controls dancing figures. The girls want the drum, but the gypsy girl says that she’ll only give it to them if they do bad things.
The Window – One dark night, Margaret sees something with glowing eyes outside her window. What is it?
Wonderful Sausage – A butcher murders his wife and turns her into sausage.
The Cat’s Paw – A woman turns herself into a cat.
The Voice – A girl hears a voice in her room at night, but nobody is there.
When I Wake Up, Everything Will Be All Right
This section has stories about dangerous and scary places.
“Oh, Susannah!” – A university student thinks her roommate is humming at night, but her roommate is already dead.
The Man in the Middle – A girl sees three men on the subway late at night, but something’s wrong with the one in the middle.
The Cat in a Shopping Bag – A woman accidentally runs over a cat, and she puts the body in a bag to dispose of, causing a thief to get a terrible shock.
The Bed by the Window – A room at a nursing home has only one bed by the window. When one man kills another to get the view, he gets a shock.
The Dead Man’s Hand – A group of nursing students resent a fellow student who seems too perfect and decide to play a prank on her.
A Ghost in the Mirror – This story explains the spooky sleepover game Bloody Mary. Kids (typically girls) go into a dark or diml-lit room and look in a mirror to see a scary face appear. (This is actually a psychological trick, sometimes referred to as the “strange-face illusion“. Humans instinctively look for faces and facial emotions, and when someone can’t see their own face in the mirror very well because the room is too dim, their mind will try to reconstruct the missing details and interpret them, creating some strange illusions, like it’s someone else’s face when it’s just their own. The book doesn’t explain that, but that’s basically what “Bloody Mary” really is.) In the game, the identity of “Bloody Mary” and what she’ll supposedly do if you see her varies. This story explains different versions of the ghost story associated with the game.
The Curse – A fraternity initiation results in the deaths of two pledges and a curse on the remaining members.
The Last Laugh
This section has spooky stories with a humorous twist.
The Church – A man takes shelter in an abandoned church during a storm and thinks that he sees ghosts inside, but they aren’t what they appear to be.
The Bad News – Two old friends who love baseball and wonder if there’s baseball in heaven. There’s good news, and bad news.
Cemetery Soup – A woman makes soup with a bone she finds in the cemetery.
The Brown Suit – A woman thinks that her dead husband would look better in a brown suit for his funeral, and the funeral parlor comes up with a bizarre solution.
BA-ROOOM! – A spooky song.
Thumpity-Thump – People move into a spooky house and hear a mysterious thumping noise.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark collected from folklore and retold by Alvin Schwartz, drawings by Stephen Gammell, 1981.
This collection of creepy stories was a popular staple of my childhood! The stories included in the book are not original stories but popular ghost stories and American urban legends that were spread around by word of mouth before being collected and written down. Many of us who were children in the 1980s and 1990s heard these stories on school playgrounds, at summer camps, or at sleepovers, even if we didn’t read them in this book first. The very popularity of these stories was part of the popularity of this particular book and others in its series. The stories were frightening yet familiar, and reading them as an adult brings a sense of creepy nostalgia and Halloweens past. There is a section at the beginning of the book where the author/compiler discusses why stories like these have been popular for generations. In the back of the book, there is another section with more detailed information about the origins of the stories and their variants. The back of the book recommends these stories for ages 9 and up.
The drawings in the book also complement the stories well. They’re all in black-and-white and have an ethereal look, as those they were composed of spirits or smoke.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies). There is also an audiobook copy.
Stories Included in the Book:
The stories are divided into sections by theme or by the effect that the stories are supposed to have.
Aaaaaaaaaaah!
This section has stories that are meant to make listeners jump at the end, like the kind people like to tell around camp fires, and there are tips for how to deliver the jump scares at the end.
The Big Toe – A boy finds a toe that seems to be growing in his garden, and his family decides to eat it (God only knows why), but that’s just the tip of something bigger …
The Walk – Two men walking down a road are each frightened by each other.
“What Do You Come For?” – A ghostly man comes down the chimney, part by part … and he comes for YOU!
Me Tie Dough-ty Walker! – A boy and his dog wait for a ghostly head that falls down a chimney.
A Man Who Lived in Leeds – A spooky rhyme.
Old Woman All Skin and Bone – A popular spooky song.
He Heard Footsteps Coming Up the Cellar Stairs
These are all stories about ghosts.
The Thing – Two friends see a frightening thing crawl out of a field, and it turns out to be prophetic.
Cold as Clay – A farmer separates his daughter from the man she loves, but when the man dies, his ghost makes sure that she gets safely home.
The White Wolf – When wolves are killing farmers’ livestock, a man becomes wealthy by hunting them. Then, a ghostly wolf takes its revenge.
The Haunted House – A preacher rids a haunted house of its ghost and brings her murderer to justice.
The Guests – A pair of travelers are looking for a room for the night. An elderly couple offers to let them stay in their house, but the travlers get a shock the next morning.
They Eat Your Eyes, They Eat Your Nose
These are an assortment of stories, and some are kind of gross-out stories. I never liked the gross-out scary stories when I was a kid, but I know some kids were really into them.
The Hearse Song – An old, traditional scary song that has several variations. “Don’t you ever laugh as the hearse goes by, For you may be the next to die.”
The Girl Who Stood on a Grave – Some kids at a party say that the graveyard down the street is scary, and one of them claims that if you stand on a grave, the person inside will reach up to grab you. A girl at the party doesn’t believe it and accepts a bet to go stand on a grave with frightening results.
A New Horse – A farmhand tells his friend that a witch turns him into a horse and rides him at night, and his friend finds a way to put a stop to it.
Alligators – A woman claims that her husband turns into an alligator at night and is turning their two sons into alligators as well. People don’t believe her, but there’s more truth to her story than they know.
Room for One More – A man has a prophetic dream that saves his life.
The Wendigo – A man on a hunting trip hears the wind calling to his companion. What does it mean?
The Dead Man’s Brains – This story is actually played as a game, and it’s especially popular on Halloween. Many of us have played some version of the game, where someone describes the body of a dead person, giving people weird and creepy things to feel that are supposed to be body parts. In reality, the “body parts” are common things, usually food, like peeled grapes to represent eyes, etc.
“May I Carry Your Basket?” – A man walking home late at night helps a strange woman to carry her basket, but what’s inside the basket is truly terrifying!
Other Dangers
These are more modern horror stories and urban legends than the earlier ones in the book, and they focus less on old ghosts and more on the dangers of modern society.
The Hook – This is a popular story at camps and sleepovers! A young couple is listening the radio in their car when they hear about an escaped murderer. The girl gets frightened and wants to go home, and it’s only when they get there that they realize how close they came to being his next victims.
The White Satin Evening Gown – A girl wants to go to a dance but doesn’t have much money for a dress to wear. When she finds a dress that she can rent cheaply, it turns out that there is something very wrong with it.
High Beams – A girl realizes that she’s being followed as she drives home alone at night, but her pursuer isn’t the one she should be afraid of.
The Babysitter – A young babysitter keeps getting strange calls … and they’re coming from inside the house.
Aaaaaaaaaaah!
Even though this section has the same name as the first section, the stories in the final section of the book have humorous twists.
The Viper – One of my old favorites! The characters in The Haunting of Grade Three tell this story to each other. A woman keeps getting calls from a man calling himself “the viper.” Who is he, and what does he want?
The Attic – Rupert is looking for his dog when something happens to him on the way to check the attic that makes him scream.
The Slithery-Dee – A short rhyme.
Aaron Kelly’s Bones – Aaron Kelly is dead, but he doesn’t feel dead enough to stay in his coffin and won’t go back there until he does.
Wait Till Martin Comes – What will the cats do when Martin finally comes?
The Ghost with the Bloody Fingers – When dealing with a ghost, sometimes the practical approach is best.
#2 The Secret Secret Passage created by A. E. Parker, written by Eric Weiner, 1992.
At the end of the previous book of solve-it-yourself mini-mysteries, it looked like Mr. Boddy had been murdered, but at the beginning of this book, he explains that he was only knocked unconscious. All of the books in the series follow this pattern from this point on – Mr. Boddy seems to be murdered in the final story, but he’s okay again in the next book, mimicking the pattern in the Clue board game, where players solve our host’s murder in his mansion over and over again. There’s generally a humorous twist to how he survives and explains the situation.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.
Stories in the Book:
The Secret Secret Passage – Professor Plum accidentally stumbles on a secret passage in the mansion that nobody knows about it. As various other guests either try to rescue Plum or try to follow his explanation of what happened to him, they also get trapped in the secret secret passage, until someone eventually tries to shoot Professor Plum over it.
The Challenge – Colonel Mustard is in a bad mood because he lost a tiddlywinks tournament and starts challenging everyone to a duel. Mr. Boddy and the other guests try to calm him down, but Mr. Green, who won the tournament provokes him into losing his temper. The two of them actually fight a duel, and readers are challenged to keep track of which weapons they use. (Of course, everyone survives the duel to appear in the other stories.)
The Joke Contest – The guests start telling each other jokes, but then they start to argue about who’s the best at telling jokes. To settle the matter, they decide to vote on it by secret ballot. Mrs. White wins, but Miss Scarlet is angry about losing. She wants to get back at whoever voted against her, and then, she realizes who it must be.
Mrs. White’s Horrible Plan – Mrs. White discovers that all of the other guests have left her something in their wills, and she makes a plan to eliminate them, but it has unintended consequences.
Boddy Language – Mrs. Peacock is so obsessed with good manners that she gets upset about the new mystery movie that Mr. Boddy funded and wants to show to his guests when she finds out that there is a scene where a white horse walks through a mud puddle. She just can’t stand any kind of “filth” in films. Mr. Boddy refuses to call off the showing of the movie, so she decides that she’s going to do something about it herself, but various others notice her attempts and thwart her. Readers are asked to figure out which weapon she was holding when she was thwarted for the last time.
Plum’s Plasma – Professor Plum has invented a fantastic cure for injuries, and after a series of injuries involving the knife, the other guests could sure use it … if readers can help Plum remember which room he left it in.
A Show of Talent – Mr. Boddy and his guests are putting on a talent show. Unfortunately, because the guests include the various weapins from the Clue game intheir acts, people end up getting hurt.
Trick or Treat – Mr. Boddy invites his friends to a Halloween party, but when they all show up in costume and start scaring each other, Mr. Boddy has to admit that he’s confused about who is who. Can you figure out who’s wearing each costume?
The Wrong Briefcase – Professor Plum is going to give the guests a scientific lecture about relativity, but when he goes to check his lecture notes, he discovers that he has the wrong briefcase. This briefcase is full of money! Professor Plum’s first thought is that he must have picked up the wrong briefcase while he was at the bank and that he should call the bank to let them know. However, the other guests try to persuade him to keep the money … and share it with them. When that fails, naturally, they decide to steal it from Plum themselves.
Mr. Boddy’s Pyramid – Mr. Boddy has decided that, when he dies, he wants to be buried in the style of an Egyptian pharaoh. He’s had a pyramid built for the purpose on his property with secret doors and hidden chambers full of treasures that he plans to have buried with him. Of course, he tells his guests all about it, asking them to make sure this last request of his is fulfilled. Also of course, someone tries to kill him for the treasure.
#1 Who Killed Mr. Boddy? created by A. E. Parker, written by Eric Weiner, 1992.
This book is a collection of short solve-it-yourself mini-mysteries based on the Clue board game. It’s the first in a series that uses the setting, characters, weapons, and other tropes from the board game. Each book in the series contains short mysteries that the reader is urged to attempt to solve before the characters do. The solutions to the mysteries come after each chapter.
The book, like others in the series begins with Reginald Boddy greeting you and welcoming you to his mansion. Then, he tells you about his other guests and asks you to be on the lookout for clues in case anything suspicious happens.
Most of the mysteries involve a crime of some kind, but not all. In the final chapter of the book, it seems like Boddy, our host, has been murdered, and the reader has to solve his murder, just like in a game of Clue. However, Mr. Boddy doesn’t actually die. It becomes a pattern in the series that he seems to have been killed in each book, but he always survives somehow to reappear in other books in the series.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.
Stories in the Book:
Who Killed Pitty-Pat? – Someone has killed Mr. Boddy’s annoying parrot!
Who Stole Miss Scarlet’s Diamonds? – Miss Scarlet asks Mr. Boddy to put her diamonds in his safe. Mr. Boddy is sure that he’s the only one who knows the combination to the safe, but someone else finds out.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Green – It’s Mr. Green’s birthday. Various guests give him presents that are the weapons in the Clue game, but Professor Plum really takes the cake by telling Mr. Green that one of his presents is a time bomb (which he says that he thought would be really exciting), and he can’t remember which room of the mansion it’s in. Can the guests find it before it goes off?
The Ghost of Mrs. Boddy – The guests hold a seance to try to contact Mr. Boddy’s late wife, Bessie. Mr. Boddy is happy when the seance is successful and his wife gives raps to indicate that she’s happy and waiting for Mr. Boddy. However, after he goes to bed, the guests realize that one of them was faking the raps just to make Mr. Boddy happy. (A rare instance where they care about his feelings.) Can you find the faker?
Hide and Seek – During a game of hide-and-seek, Mrs. White is accidentally knocked unconscious at the same time that the mansion catches fire. Can you help the other guests find her in time to save her?
Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire! – There’s another fire in the mansion, and one of the guests is responsible. Can you determine from their statements which of them caused the fire?
The Secret Changes Hands – Mr. Boddy forms a photography club with his friends. However, Professor Plum, desperate for money to fund his research about which animal blinks the most, takes the opportunity to spy on Mr. Boddy and learn the secret of his discovery for making extra-long-lasting gumdrops to sell to a rival company. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one interested in Mr. Boddy’s secrets, and after he photographs Mr. Boddy’s secret documents, other people try to steal his roll of film. Can you find the person who ends up with it?
The Sleepwalking Killer – A member of Mr. Boddy’s house party starts sleepwalking. After having a midnight snack in the kitchen, this person finds a gun and thinks that they’re supposed to shoot someone. Who is the mysterious sleepwalker?
Miss Feather’s Gossip Column – One of Mr. Boddy’s guests writes a gossip column about the others. Since the gossip columnist is obsessed with analyzing everyone’s manners, it isn’t hard to figure out that it’s Mrs. Peacock. When the others confront her, she refuses to retract the article, and the other guests later try to attack her while wearing masks. Mrs. Peacock demonstrates that she knows who all of the masked people are and invites the reader to figure out who is who.
Who Was Fiddling Around? – Mr. Boddy invites his guests to join him for a musical evening. However, a strange, hunchbacked woman also shows up and plays the violin. Then, Mr. Boddy’s rare Stradivarius violin disappears. It seems that the strange woman took it, but who was the strange woman, really?
The Night the Maid Became a Zombie – Someone hypnotizes Mrs. White to steal Mr. Boddy’s new statuette.
April Fools – A series of April Fools jokes seems to end in murder.
Who Killed Mr. Boddy? – Mr. Boddy tells his friends how much he’s appreciated their companionship since his wife’s death and reveals that he’s made them all heirs in his will. Naturally, someone plots to kill him.
Encyclopedia Brown Gets His Man by Donald J. Sobol, 1967, 1982.
The Idaville police department has an excellent record, but that’s because the chief of police’s ten-year-old son is Encyclopedia Brown. People praise Chief Brown, and Chief Brown doesn’t feel like he can admit how much help his son gives him because he doubts anyone would believe him. Encyclopedia himself doesn’t want to admit to other people that he helps his father figure out tough cases because he doesn’t want to seem too different from the others kids at school. However, Encyclopedia also has a detective business, helping the neighborhood kids to solve their problems for only 25 cents a day, plus expenses.
I always liked Encyclopedia Brown books when I was a kid! There are a couple of instances in this book of underage kids smoking, but I’d like to point out that smoking isn’t portrayed as a good think. Bugs is shown smoking in a picture, but he’s a young hoodlum and Encyclopedia’s nemesis, not one of the good guys in the stories. In another case, there’s a kid who smokes coffee grounds with a homemade pipe because he’s too young to buy tobacco. At first, he thinks he’s clever for figuring out how to do that and sneak a smoke without his mother’s knowledge, but it ends up getting him into trouble, and he promises Encyclopedia that he’ll give it up if he helps him out. Encyclopedia doesn’t lecture him, but he does refer to smoking as “burning your lungs”, so it seems that he isn’t in favor of it.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
Stories in the Book:
The Case of the Marble Shooter
Algernon Kehoe is a master at marbles, but when he beat Bugs Meany, Bugs took all of his marbles, including his best shooters. Can Encyclopedia get Algernon’s marbles back?
The Case of Bugs Meany, Detective
Bugs Meany resents Encyclopedia for interfering with his schemes, but he can’t fight him directly because Encyclopedia’s detective partner, Sally, is the toughest and most athletic girl in their grade at school, and she’s beaten Bugs in a fight before. However, this time, he thinks he’s come up with a great way to get revenge – turn his gang, the Tigers, into a rival detective agency and beat Encyclopedia at his own game.
Someone steals a violin from the kids’ friend, Mario, and Bugs shows off that he can get it back before Encyclopedia and claim the reward for finding it. Of course, the kids’ first thought is that Bugs stole the violin himself. Can they prove it?
The Case of the Underwater Car
Encyclopedia and some friends want to go camping, and his mother tells him that he ought to ask Benny to go as well. Encyclopedia and the other kids like Benny, but they don’t like to camp with him because he snores badly. Sure enough, that night, Benny snores again, and Encyclopedia and the other boys have trouble getting to sleep. Encyclopedia leaves the tent for awhile and witnesses a bizarre car accident. The car misses a turn in the road, and the driver jumps out, screaming for help. The driver claims that he fell asleep at the wheel and that he woke up just in time to save himself. He says that his back is now badly injured, and he’s making a large claim on his insurance. However, Encyclopedia knows how to prove that the whole accident was staged.
The Case of the Whistling Ghost
A boy named Fabius hires Encyclopedia because he thinks his camera was stolen by a ghost. Fabius likes to study bugs, and he went inside the old, abandoned Morgan house to see if he could find any interesting bugs there. He was about to photograph a spider when a white ghost came down the stairs, making scary noises and an odd whistling sound. Fabius got spooked and ran off, leaving his camera behind. Later, when he got up the nerve to go back for his camera, it was gone.
The Case of the Explorer’s Money
A famous explorer dies, and a large amount of his money disappears. With so many people coming to his estate to attend an auction of the explorer’s belongings, how can Encyclopedia figure out how the thief plans to evade the searches being conducted by the police and get the money out of the estate?
The Case of the Coffee Smoker
A friend of the kids is being blackmailed. Someone is threatening to tell his mother that he’s been secretly smoking coffee grounds (because he’s too young to buy tobacco and thinks he’s found a clever way around the problem). He promises to kick the habit if Encyclopedia can stop the blackmailer. It isn’t hard to figure out who the blackmailer might be, but proving it will take more thought.
The Case of the Chinese Vase
A friend of Encyclopedia’s has a job cutting lawns to earn extra money for his family. While he’s working on a job, someone breaks an expensive vase in his client’s house, and they accuse Encyclopedia’s friend of doing it. Encyclopedia knows that it was actually the daughter of the house who did it, even though he wasn’t in the house at the time himself. How?
The Case of the Blueberry Pies
This year, there’s been a change to the pie-eating contest because local mothers think that the usual eating contest is gross and unhealthy. To make it healthier, they’ve limited the eating portion to two pies and added a race portion to the event. (Because running is a good thing to do immediately after eating two whole pies quickly?) However, one of the contestants seems to win too easily. How did they cheat?
The Case of the Murder Man
Cicero, a boy actor, wants to put on a mystery play with himself as the star as entertainment for an interfaith youth gathering. The problem is that he doesn’t have a good mystery story in mind, and he recruits Encyclopedia to write one that the audience can solve along with the characters.
The Case of the Million Pesos
Encyclopedia’s friend, Tim Gomez, is worried about his uncle, who is in jail in Mexico. He’s a famous baseball player, but he’s been accused of robbing a bank. Tim thinks his uncle was framed by a man named Pedro Morales because the woman he loved married Tim’s uncle instead, and he’s jealous. Tim’s uncle has an abili, but it’s not one that would be easy to prove. Even though the robbery occurred in another country, Tim asks Encyclopedia to consider the problem and see if he can think of something that will help.
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol, 1963, 1982.
The Idaville police department has an excellent record, but that’s because the chief of police’s ten-year-old son is Encyclopedia Brown. People praise Chief Brown, and Chief Brown doesn’t feel like he can admit how much help his son gives him because he doubts anyone would believe him. Encyclopedia himself doesn’t want to admit to other people that he helps his father figure out tough cases because he doesn’t want to seem too different from the others kids at school. However, Encyclopedia also has a detective business, helping the neighborhood kids to solve their problems for only 25 cents a day, plus expenses.
This is the very first book in the series and introduces the character and how he begins solving mysteries. It also explains how he meets his detective partner Sally Kimball and his neighborhood nemesis Bug Meany, who is the leader of a gang of boys called the Tigers.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
Stories in the Book:
The Case of Natty Nat
In Encyclopedia’ first case ever, he helps his father to find the real criminal in a robbery case.
The Case of the Scattered Cards
Deciding after his first success that he wants to be a detective, Encyclopedia starts his own detective business out of his garage. His first client is a boy named Clarence, whose tent has been stolen by Bug Meany and his gang of friends called the Tigers. This is the first time that Encyclopedia meets Bugs, who becomes his neighborhood nemesis.
The Case of the Civil War Sword
Bugs Meany offers to trade a sword that he says dates from the Civil War and was once owned by Stonewall Jackson to a boy in exchange for his bike. A real antique sword would be world a great deal more than a bike, but Encyclopedia can tell that it’s a fake.
The Case of Merko’s Grandson
Sally Kimball is one of the prettiest and most athletic girls at school, and she’s also one of the smartest. She wants to prove that she’s as smart as any boy and challenges Encyclopedia to a mystery-solving contest. It’s boy against girl, with Bugs Meany and the Tigers surprisingly rallying behind Encyclopedia. (Bugs has reason to resent Sally, who beat him in a fight after he was bullying another kid. He resents her more than he resents Encyclopedia.) Encyclopedia solves the mystery that Sally poses for him, but rather than becoming another nemesis, Sally joins Encyclopedia’s detective agency.
The Case of the Bank Robber
Encyclopedia and Sally go down to the bank to open an account for the earnings from the detective business, and they witness a robbery in progress. They see the robber collide with a blind beggar and run off, but when the police catch up with the robber, he doesn’t have the money from the robbery with him. A visit with the blind beggar settles what happened.
The Case of the Happy Nephew
A man with a criminal history is accused of robbing a shop. He says that he’s innocent because he only just returned from a long car trip, but his small nephew accidentally proves that can’t be true.
The Case of the Diamond Necklace
Chief Brown is embarrassed because a necklace that he was supposed to guard was apparently stolen from an event where it was supposed to be auctioned off. Encyclopedia notices an inconsistency in the witness statement that proves what really happened.
The Case of the Knife in the Watermelon
A member of a local gang of kids broke into the storeroom of a grocery store and tried to rob it. (It’s the Lions this time instead of the Tigers. First, I think it’s funny that they have the same name as a benevolent club, and second, I want to make a joke about how there should be a third gang in their town call the Bears – Lions, Tigers, and Bears, oh my!) Fortunately, he was frightened away before he took anything, but in his getaway, he accidentally tripped and stabbed a watermelon with his knife, leaving the knife behind. The owner of the grocery store becomes Encyclopedia’s first adult client (other than his father), hiring him to figure out which kid in the gang it was.
The Case of the Missing Roller Skates
Encyclopedia had Sally’s roller skates because he was fixing them for her, but before he can give them back, they’re stolen from the dentist’s office during his appointment. Encyclopedia tracks down the thief!
The Case of the Champion Egg Spinner
A kid has been winning an egg spinning contest against other kids after convincing them to bet some of their prized possessions. The other kids ask Encyclopedia to find out how he’s been winning.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald, 1947, 1957, 1975, 1987.
This book has been printed and reprinted many times over the decades. The edition that I used for this review is the same one that I read when I was in elementary school, printed in the 1980s. One of the reasons why the edition matters is that the illustrations were different in the first printings in the book. In 1957, the illustrations were replaced by the ones you see here, which continued to be used in later printings.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a widow who lives in an upside-down house. Her husband was a pirate, and she has magical cures for the bad habits of the children who live in her neighborhood. Sometimes, she doesn’t need magic for a particular child’s bad habit, just using psychology. Sometimes, certain behaviors, like staying up all night instead of going to bed, are their own punishment, and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle advises the parents to let the children do them for a certain period of time so they can find out for themselves why these things are a bad idea, usually with very funny results. This book is the first book in the series, and it particularly uses more psychology than magic.
As an adult, I actually prefer the psychological cures to the magical ones. These stories are meant to be humorous rather than practical, and because of that, they’re not realistic. First, they never really go into the psychological reasons why some of these kids do the things they do, like becoming over-protective of their belongings or suddenly becoming afraid of taking baths. Then, when children suffer the consequences of their misbehavior, the consequences are humorous and exaggerated, like the boy whose room gets so messy that he actually traps himself inside until he decides to clean up and the girl who gets so dirty that her parents can grow radishes on her. However, the fact that there are consequences for the children’s behavior is a useful touch of realism. It gives parents or teachers the opportunity to talk to kids about what they expect would happen if they actually did any of the things kids do in the stories and think about some of the consequences of their own actions. These are stories that can make kids chuckle and then make them think.
I think it’s important to point out that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle never actually blames the children for their bad behavior, seeing it more as an affliction that they need to be cured from. She likes all children in spite of their bad habits and bad behavior (something I admit that I find hard to do with people in real life), and she wants to cure them of their problems so that other people will see how likeable they are underneath. Even though Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle likes the children, she doesn’t spare them from the consequences of their actions because that is part of the cure that the children need to become the best versions of themselves. Sometimes, the consequences are the cure by themselves, and those are the stories I like best. After all, what makes bad habits “bad” is that they have bad consequences to them. They cause problems, both for the person behaving badly and others. Maybe, sometimes, people need to see the problems for themselves and experience the consequences directly before they find the motivation to fix their behavior. I can believe that part of these stories is realistic. The rest of it is just for fun.
The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books are collections of short stories, and each one focuses on a different child or set of children, their particular problems or bad habits, and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s solutions for them.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
The Stories in this Book:
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Herself
This section of the book introduces and describes Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. She is a small woman with a hump on her back, which she says contains magic. (The hump isn’t really shown in the pictures of her in the book, but she’s supposed to have one.) She has very long brown hair, which she usually wears up, but sometimes, she lets it down so that children can comb and braid it or style it in different ways. Her eyes are also brown, and her skin is described as being a “goldy brown.” (Her racial identity is not specified because it’s not important to the stories. The pictures show her as being white, so maybe she just has a tan, but I find the written description interesting because it could leave the character open to different interpretations and playable by different types of actors. Her description could fit quite a lot of people, really.) She wears brown clothing (although that’s not how she’s shown in the pictures) and smells like sugar cookies. She claims not to know her own age, saying that it doesn’t matter, since she’ll never get any bigger than she is now.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a widow, and she tells the children that her husband was a pirate who buried treasure in the back yard before he died. She has no children of her own, but she loves all the neighborhood children, and she frequently looks after them and has them come over to play. She doesn’t often speak to the children’s parents because she gets nervous around adults. She also has a dog named Wag and a cat named Lightfoot.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle lives in a little brown house that is upside down. She says that her house is upside down because, when she was a little girl, she used to look up at the ceiling when she was in bed and wonder what it would be like to walk on the ceiling, so when she grew up, she purposely built her house upside down just to find out. The only parts of the house that are normal are the kitchen, the bathroom, and the stairs because none of them would work properly if they were upside down.
When I was a kid, I thought that the upside-down house was the best part of the stories. When people walk around inside it, they have to step over the sills of the doorways because what should be the tops of doors are not flush with the ceiling the way the bottoms are flush with the floor, and these doorways are upside down. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle put little steps into and out of doorways to help with that, but kids like to jump the doorways as a challenge. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle lets them make chalk marks to record the lengths of their jumps. Also, because the ceilings are now the floors, the chandelier is on the floor of the living room, shining upward instead of down, and kids sit around it like it’s a camp fire. The children can also use the slanting ceiling-floors of the house as slides.
Most of this part of the book is backstory for Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, but it explains that the first neighborhood child she made friends with was a girl named Mary Lou, who was running away from home because she hated doing the dishes so much. Seeing Mary Lou going down the sidewalk in the rain with her suitcase, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle invited her in for tea and cookies, and Mary Lou told her about her problems. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle tells Mary Lou that she really likes washing dishes because it’s fun to pretend that she’s a beautiful princess who was captured by an evil witch who makes her do all the cleaning and that the only way she can escape is to have everything clean by the time the clock strikes. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle draws Mary Lou into a game of pretend, where they both pretend that they’re cleaning the kitchen for the evil witch. Then, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle puts on her witch’s costume, pretending to be the witch, inspecting the kitchen to make sure that it’s clean.
It’s so much fun that Mary Lou gets over hating washing the dishes. When she tells her parents about Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, they let her spend time with Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and she brings her friend, Kitty, to visit when Kitty says that she hates making the beds at her house. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle plays a similar game of pretend with Kitty and Mary Lou, where they pretend that they are making beds for a cruel queen who will throw them in the dungeon if the sheets are wrinkled.
Gradually, Mary Lou and Kitty start bringing their siblings and other friends to see Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle gets to know all of the children in the neighborhood. She shows them how to make chores fun, teaches them to do things like bake cookies and pies, and lets them dig for pirate treasure in the backyard. Because she is so good with children, parents in the neighborhood call her to ask for help and advice when they’re having problems with their kids.
The Won’t-Pick-Up-Toys Cure
Hubert Prentiss’s grandfather gives him many wonderful toys, but Hubert doesn’t like putting them away. It’s very difficult to get around his room, and the problem gets worse all the time. Hubert’s mother tries asking other mothers what they do with their children, but they either don’t have the same problem or don’t know what to do. Then, one of them suggests asking Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle because she’s so good with children. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has met Hubert before because he’s come to her house with the other children.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle suggests that Hubert’s mother let Hubert make his room messy and that she not try to pick up after him or even enter his room. Then, when the room gets to the point that it’s difficult for Hubert himself to even go in or out, to give her a call. After a week, Hubert’s room is so bad that he can’t open his bedroom door and can’t even use his bed. His mother has to feed him through his bedroom window. Even though she’s only able to give him things like peanut butter sandwiches through the window and Hubert doesn’t have anywhere comfortable to sleep anymore, he’s still not motivated enough to leave his room and put away all his toys. However, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has a plan to motivate Hubert enough that he’s willing to finally clean his room just to get out.
The Answer-Backer Cure
When Mary O’Toole’s teacher picks her to stay in at recess and help clean up the classroom, Mary is so irritated that she tells the teacher to do it herself and to let her go play with the other kids. Her mother tells her that was a rude thing to say to her teacher, but it’s just the beginning of Mary’s bad habit of being rude and impudent to people. Mary thinks that it makes her look smart to contradict people, and her new responses to any order or request her parents and teacher make are “Why should I?” and “I’ll do it because I want to but not because you tell me to.” (Nobody but you cares why you do it, kiddo. They just want it done because they just want to get through the day and accomplish things. You can either be the one who makes that easier or the one who makes that harder or more unpleasant, but things are still going to need to be done either way.)
Mary’s mother goes through the usual routine of calling other mothers for their opinions, and one of them suggests talking to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s solution is to let Mary keep her parrot, Penelope for awhile. Penelope is as rude as Mary is and repeats many of the things that Mary herself says. At first, Mary thinks it’s funny, but gradually, she begins to see how annoying it is and realizes how she sounds when she talks that way. Her dad actually laughs when he hears how much the parrot sounds like Mary, which makes Mary mad. Penelope also uses remarks that Mary thought that she’d made up herself, but she says them before Mary actually said them around her, making Mary realize that she’s not even as clever and original as she thought she was. When she sees how annoying it is to be around someone as rude and negative as she was, Mary apologizes to her teacher and gives it up.
(Actually, I know a lot of adults who talk just like Mary – “I’ll do it because I want to but not because you tell me to.” If they don’t use those exact words, it’s solidly the exact same attitude. They say they do it specifically because they’re adults and nobody should be telling them what to do under any circumstances, even if it’s something important. For them, it’s a kneejerk reaction to being told something, anything, no matter the circumstances and with little thought or attention to what they’re being told and whether it’s actually worthwhile. I always think of this story whenever I hear them talking that way.)
The Selfishness Cure
Dick Thompson is selfish and greedy. It’s no fun for other kids to come play at his house because he won’t share any of his toys or let anybody touch anything that belongs to him. It’s always “MY” this and “MY” that and everything is “MINE!” Dick’s mother realizes that something must be done when she gives Dick a box of peppermint sticks specifically to share with other kids in order to teach him how to share, and he actually hits Mary O’Toole on the hand with his baseball bat for trying to take one.
When Dick’s mother calls his father at work and asks him what they should do, the father’s first suggestion is a good, hard spanking because that’s something Dick can keep all to himself, but the mother is upset at the idea of more physical violence. The father then suggests that she talk to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle because she’s helped other children in the neighborhood.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Selfishness Cure is her special Selfishness Kit. It contains a variety of padlocks that Dick can use to lock up his stuff. It also has labels and paint that Dick can use to label all of his stuff, and it even has a pastry bag for labeling Dick’s food as his with frosting. The idea is to indulge Dick’s desire to prevent anyone from touching anything that belongs to him until it becomes so much of a hassle that he decides that it’s too much trouble.
At first, Dick is really happy that he can label everything he owns with his name and write “DON’T TOUCH!” on it, but as predicted, it turns out to be a big problem. Because Dick has everything, including his lunch, marked with his name and “DON’T TOUCH”, it isn’t long before everyone at school knows and is laughing at him. Plus, as my mother says, “With some kids, you can tell them not to touch something, and they won’t touch it, but there are also kids who, when you tell them not to touch something, just can’t wait to touch it.”
The Radish Cure
Patsy is a perfectly ordinary girl, but one day, she suddenly decides that she hates baths and refuses to take another one. There is no explanation why, and none of the other mothers in the neighborhood seem to be having that problem with their children, but Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has a solution.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle tells Patsy’s mother to led her go several weeks without washing at all, letting her get as dirty as she wants. Then, she should get a packet of small radish seeds and plant them on Patsy. When Pasty sees that she’s sprouting radishes, she suddenly decides that she’s ready for a bath.
The Never-Want-To-Go-To-Bedders Cure
The three children in the Gray family never like going to bed. Every night, when it’s time for bed, they beg to be allowed to stay up a little later and insist that nobody else in the neighborhood goes to bed as early as they do. It often takes about an hour of whining, complaining, and arguing before their parents are able to get them to bed.
Mrs. Gray goes through the usual routine of asking other parents if they have this problem with their children, but none of her friends do, so she asks Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle what to do.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s advice is to let the children stay up as late as they want to. Mrs. Gray worries that not getting enough sleep will be bad for the children’s health, but Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle says that a day or two with less sleep won’t make much of a difference, and by that time, they’ll realize why going to bed at night is a good idea.
The Gray children think it’s great at first that their parents no longer tell them to go to bed and even let them stay up half the night, but soon, they’re falling asleep in the middle of the day, missing movies that they go to see when they fall asleep in the theater and missing out on fun activities with other kids either because they’re asleep or too tired to enjoy them.
The Slow-Eater-Tiny-Bite-Taker Cure
A boy named Allen has suddenly become obsessed with eating his food very slowly, taking super-tiny bites. It’s a very odd habit, and it makes meal times difficult because he eats very little and take a very long time to do it. I’d be worried if he was having difficulty swallowing, but his mother calls Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle gives his mother sets of dishes in different sizes, from fairly large to ridiculously tiny. At each meal, Allen’s mother uses progressively smaller dishes. Allen is fascinated by the tiny dishes, which fit his new dainty eating, but he’s getting weaker because he’s been hardly eating anything.
I actually found the descriptions of his weakness a little alarming, but his mother then reverses the order of the dishes she gives him, starting with the smallest and then moving to the biggest. As Allen realizes that he feels better when he starts eating more food, his appetite returns, and he gets his strength back.
The Fighter-Quarrelers Cure
Twins Joan and Anne Russell have been fighting with each other a lot, and it’s driving their parents crazy. The twins argue with each other over everything, like who is wearing whose clothing and who had more bacon or the biggest slice of melon on their plate at breakfast, and they even pinch and slap each other. Sibling quarrels are pretty common, but Mrs. Russell asks Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle if there’s anything they can do to end this constant fighting.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle advises the girls’ parents to make notes about the types of petty things that the girls argue about and spend a day having staged arguments of their own in front of the girls to show them what it’s like to be around that type of arguing all the time.
From the moment they wake up the next day, the twins suddenly find themselves in the awkward position of trying to reason with their parents and referee their quarrels as they become witnesses to the same kinds of petty behavior they’ve been doing themselves. Finally, the girls have had their fill of fighting, and with their petty quarrels now in perspective, the entire family promises each other that they won’t fight like that again.
Princess Tales edited by Nora Kramer, illustrated by Barbara Cooney, 1971.
This is a collection of princess stories by various authors, including retellings of some classic fairy tales, some or all of which were printed in other locations before being included in this collection. Although I have encountered some of these stories before this collection, I liked the illustrations in this book because I like Barbara Cooney’s work.
Stories in the Book:
The Practical Princess by Jay Williams (1969) – I know this story from the story collection that is named after it, but it did appear in other printings before either of these. Princess Bedelia was given the gift of common sense as a baby, and she uses her practicality to rid her kingdom of a dragon and save herself from marriage to an evil sorcerer.
The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Virginia Haviland (1959) – A retelling of the classic fairy tale. A French kingdom with twelve beautiful princesses is mystified by how the princesses’ shoes are always worn through every morning even though the door to their room is locked every night when they go to bed. What are the princesses doing every night that ruins their shoes, and how are they doing it? Michel, a young cowherd who has recently taken a gardening job at the castle and who has fallen in love with the youngest of the twelve princesses, discovers the answer. When her sisters want to enchant Michel, as they have others who have discovered their secret to keep them from telling, Princess Lina needs to decide if she loves Michel as much as he loves her.
The Princess and the Vagabone by Ruth Sawyer (1942) – A beautiful but bad-tempered Irish princess learns a lesson in kindness when her father gets fed up with the way she treats her suitors. All of her life, the princess has dealt out criticism and insults to everyone, when she sees a suitor with whom she can find no fault, she doesn’t know what to do (never having practiced kindness or spoken nicely to anyone) and gets angry, hitting him and crying as she runs from the room. Her father, disgusted with her impossible behavior, tells her that he’s had enough, and since she has rejected all the royal suitors, he will force her to marry the next vagabone (vagabond) who comes begging at the castle. As the wife of a vagabond, the princess learns to face hardships she has never experienced before, sees for the first time how much kindness from another person can really mean, and notes positive points about others for the first time, enjoying the ragged vagabone’s song. But, there is still one more surprise when the vagabone turns out to be the perfect suitor the princess thought that she had rejected.
Melisande by E. Nesbit – A king and queen want to avoid the usual messes and curses that often result from holding a christening party for a new princess and forgetting to invite one of the fairies, so they decide that, for their daughter Melisande, they will simply hold an informal christening with no party. However, all of the fairies get mad about this and come to give curses to the princess. Fortunately, the king points out logically that, according to tradition, only one forgotten fairy can offer a bad curse to a princess after being left out of a christening party. Fairies are held to certain rules and can vanish for breaking them, so since the first fairy already cursed the princess with baldness, the others simply agree to count themselves are party guests and leave. Princess Melisande spends her childhood being bald, but the king offers her a fairy wish that he had been saving for something special so that she can wish for hair. However, Melisande foolishly wishes for her hair to grow exceedingly fast and even faster when cut. It’s far too much hair for her, even though people try to help her find uses for it, like weaving it into clothes and stuffing pillows with it. As usual in these cases, the king offers Melisande’s hand in marriage to the prince who can help her to solve her problem. At first, Prince Florizel thinks he’s found the solution when, instead of cutting the princess’s hair from her, he cuts her from her hair. However, that has the unintended side effect of making the princess grow suddenly tall! What will Prince Florizel do to get the princess and her hair to balance? (At one point, this story references Alice in Wonderland.)
The Handkerchief by Robert Gilstrap and Irene Estabrook (1958) – At first, Zakia is not happy when her father, the Grand Vizier of Morocco accepts the sultan’s offer to marry her on her behalf. She doesn’t think that it’s fair for him to order her to marry anyone, and she doesn’t love the sultan. In response, she imposes a requirement on the marriage, that the sultan must learn a trade in case he loses his throne and has to earn a living. To the vizier’s surprise, the sultan thinks that sounds like a clever request, and the sultan learns the art of weaving. He enjoys it, and he makes a beautiful handkerchief for Zakia as a wedding present. Zakia appreciates the gift and marries him. The sultan’s ability as a weaver later saves him when he is in a desperate situation.
The Blackbird’s Song by Barbara Leonie Picard (1964) – An artist paints an unflattering picture of the king and is thrown into prison. However, the princess’s pet blackbird sings to him of the princess’s beauty and kindness, and he is able to paint a marvelous portrait of her without having seen her himself. When the princess falls in love with the artist, her blackbird and its friends help them to make their escape from her father.
Ricky-of-the-Tuft by Polly Curren (1963) – A prince is born ugly, and his mother is worried, but a fairy gives him the gift of wit and intelligence, with the ability to give that gift to someone he loves. In another kingdom, a queen has two daughters. The eldest is beautiful and the youngest is plain. However, a fairy says that the plain girl will be bright and intelligent, and people who talk to her will forget what she looks like. The beautiful girl is less fortunate because she is not intelligent. People will enjoy looking at her, but they will quickly tire of her because she does not speak intelligently and has nothing to say. To compensate the beautiful girl, the fairy says that she will be able to make the person she loves beautiful as well. When the ugly prince, Rick-of-the-Tuft, meets the beautiful princess and falls in love with her, the two of them are able to use their gifts to help each other. The story is based on a Perrault fairy tale.
The Son of the Baker of Barra by Sorche Nic Leodhas (1968) – The baker’s son, Ian Beg, is a nice boy, and sometimes a little too nice. When his father sends him to take a cake to the princess, he is stopped by old women who ask him for a taste of the cake, and he cannot refuse them. However, it turns out to be a fortunate thing. The old women are actually fairy folk, and not only do they handsomely compensate him for the cake that they eat, but they also help him when the princess falls in love with him and the king tries to get rid of him by sending him off to find a castle of his own. The king doesn’t expect that Ian Beg will be able to find a castle and supply the kind of lifestyle that a princess needs, but he doesn’t know that Ian Beg has help.
Home for Christmas: Stories for Young and Old compiled by Miriam LeBlanc, 2002.
Disclosure:Plough Publishing House sent a copy of this book to me for review purposes, but the opinions in the review are my own.
This is a collection of short Christmas stories written by famous authors from around the world. One of the things that I found interesting about the selection of authors in the book is that many of them are better known for writing on very different themes. Among the authors in this book are Madeleine L’Engle, who is known for writing science fiction, such as A Wrinkle in Time; Elizabeth Goudge, who wrote the mid-20th century classic children’s fantasy story The Little White Horse (later made into the film called The Secret of Moonacre); Katherine Paterson, known for her children’s novels, including Bridge to Terabithia, Jacob Have I Loved, and historical novels set in Asia, such as The Master Puppeteer; and Pearl S. Buck, author of The Good Earth.
Although the book is intended for children and families and many of the authors are known for writing for children and young adults, I think that many of the stories wouldn’t particularly appeal to children, especially younger children, because children wouldn’t be likely to understand them or they have darker themes, like bitterness that must be overcome and grief at the death of a child. The stories generally end well, but for young children, something simpler and lighter in subject matter, like the short stories in Merry Christmas from Eddie, would be more appealing. Really, I think this book would be best for adults, although I noted some of the more child-friendly stories.
One thing that I wished the book included is sections of information that explain a little more about the stories behind the stories. I recognized the historical references behind some of the stories, but other readers, particular children, might require a little more explanation to fully appreciate them. I think that’s another good reason why the stories might appeal more to adults.
There are 20 stories contained in the book. Each of the stories in the book has one black-and-white picture in an old-fashioned woodcut style.
I don’t think that there are any copies of this book available to read for free online, but this book is available for purchase through Plough Publishing House.
The stories contained in this book are:
Brother Robber by Helene Christaller
A young monk sends three robbers away without food before Christmas because they are violent criminals, but an older monk convinces him to have compassion and to find them and give them the food they have asked for.
The compassionate brother, Brother Francis, is St. Francis of Assisi, although it is not explicitly explained in the story, and the younger brother, Brother Angelo, is the main character. The story of St. Francis, Brother Angelo, and the robbers is an old one that has been told before in other forms, but this is a good rendition.
Three Young Kings by George Summer Albee
Three boys at a school in Cuba are given the role of playing the Three Kings in their school play as well as delivering presents to the rest of the children in their community, giving them presents that their parents have already bought for them. However, their task proves harder than they thought when they see how upset the poor children are that they pass their houses and leave nothing because their parents couldn’t afford presents. What can they do?
This is a good book for talking about making choices. In the end, the community is satisfied with the boys’ choice, but a good topic for discussion after this story would be what the community will choose to do next year, when new boys become the Three Kings.
Transfiguration by Madeleine L’Engle
A nun in New York City struggles to answer a poor man’s questions about why Christmas should be so “merry” when there are so many poor people and bad things happening in the world. The real answer comes to her after the man tries to rob her.
The Cribmaker’s Trip to Heaven by Reimmichl
Willibald Krautmann spends his life making manger scenes for Christmas, and he is sure that his work will earn him a place in Heaven. Unfortunately, when he dies, he is not received in Heaven as he thought and, confronted with the history of his faults that prevents him from entering, he must seek an advocate to help him plead his case. However, it’s not too late for him to mend his ways, and the reader is left to imagine how much was real and how much was dream.
The Guest by Nikolai S. Lesskov
Timofai was a bitter young man, an orphan defrauded of his inheritance by his uncle. After a violent fight with his uncle, he is sent into exile in Siberia. Even after his life improves and he marries and has a family of his own, he still finds himself bitter about the injustice that was done to him. Is there anything that his friend and brother-in-law can say that will help him? When he finally meets his uncle again, after many years, will they both get the closure they really need?
Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck
An older man and his wife decide how to spend Christmas now that their children are grown and living their own lives, separately. As the man reflects on Christmases past, he realizes that love is what makes Christmas special and what you do to show other people how much you love them.
This is one of those stories that I think adults would understand more than children, although it’s a good thought to explain to older children.
The Other Wise Man by Henry van Dyke
The story of a wise man who set out to follow the star at Christmas, like the others, but didn’t arrive at Bethlehem with them because he stopped to help someone. Although he arrives too late to see the Christ Child, he is in the right places to help people because he set out on the journey. At the end of his life, this wise man does actually see Jesus at his crucifixion.
In Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1878, an unusual carpenter promises that he can build a staircase to a church choir loft, even though the original architect didn’t leave space for stairs. Even though other carpenters had failed to find a solution to the problem, the mysterious stranger solves it. But, who was that mysterious carpenter, and how did he do it?
This is actually based on a true story! I’ve been to the church in Santa Fe, the Loretto Chapel, and I’ve seen this staircase myself! The short story ends with a few details about the history of the event.
No Room in the Inn by Katherine Paterson
When an eighteen-year-old boy’s parents leave him alone at the family’s inn, which is closed for Christmas while they visit his sister’s family, he’s a little sad at spending Christmas alone but also looking forward to some freedom to relax. However, a mysterious stranger who needs a place for the night changes his plans.
The Chess Player by Ger Koopman
The Christ Child must help an old man to forgive his estranged daughter on Christmas. Can the Christ Child soften a hardened heart over a game of chess?
The Christmas Lie by Dorothy Thomas
A poor young girl from a large family invents a story that some friends have invited the whole family to join them for Christmas dinner when, in fact, no invitation has been made. It had really been more of an impulsive wish that they had been invited, but when her family believes her and begins preparing for the event, can the girl find the courage to admit the truth? What will happen when everyone realizes that she lied?
This is one of the better child-centered stories in the book.
The Riders of St. Nicholas by Jack Schaefer
A group of cowboys have to decide which of them are going into town to celebrate Christmas and which of them will be staying on the ranch. The ones who get left behind plan a small feast for themselves as consolation for being left out of the fun. However, their plans change when they rescue a neighbor who got drunk and almost froze in a snowstorm.
Grandfather’s Stories by Ernst Wiechert
An old coachman tells stories that his grandfather told him. One Christmas Eve, his grandfather’s grandfather was driving a coach and saw a strange, smiling boy who seemed to be asking for something. Although his employer wanted him to drive on, the coachman gave the boy a ride, and it turns out to be the beginning of a miracle. In another story, a cruel master is changed for the better when he sees that the victim of his cruelty is Christ.
The Vexation of Barney Hatch by B.J. Chute
A panhandler gets recruited as a store Santa and helps a poor boy who only wants a harmonica.
The Empty Cup by Opal Menius
King Herod, knowing of a prophecy that a new king would be born, attempted to kill the new king to preserve his own power. Unable to tell which baby would be the prophesied king, Jesus, he ordered all of the boy babies in the area to be killed.
This story focuses on a man whose only child was killed. His wife seems unable to get over the shock and grief of their son’s death until another little boy teaches her how to get over a loss.
The Well of the Star by Elizabeth Goudge
The Well of the Star is a well where legend has it that the Wise Men stopped on their way to see Jesus. David is a poor shepherd boy who is left behind when the other shepherds go to see the baby Jesus. He is visited by the archangel Michael, who sends him to join the others, meeting the Wise Men on the way.
This is one of the better child-centered stories in the book.
A Certain Small Shepherd by Rebecca Caudill
Jamie’s mother died shortly after his birth, and for much of his young life, Jamie is unable to talk. When he begins going to school, he does well, except that he can’t answer questions out loud in class and not at all if he doesn’t know how to spell the word that he wants. It’s frustrating. However, when his teacher makes him a shepherd in the school Christmas play and his family has some unexpected visitors in a snowstorm, things change.
This is one of the better child-centered stories in the book.
The Carpenter’s Christmas by Peter K. Rosegger
The carpenter’s wife thinks that he isn’t be pious enough on Christmas, but he has an important job to do for someone less fortunate.
What the Kings Brought by Ruth Sawyer
In Spain, the tradition is that the Three Kings bring presents to children on Twelfth Night. A traveler in Spain shortly before Twelfth Night meets a poor young boy who is desperately trying to raise money to buy a new burro to help his father on his farm. The traveler and his friend come up with an idea to help the boy without it seeming like charity.
This is one of the better child-centered stories in the book.
The Christmas Rose by Selma Lagerlof
A Robber Mother trespasses on monastery ground and angers the monks when she tells them that their beautiful herb garden cannot compare to the way the forest looks on Christmas Eve. Abbot Hans decides to pay the Robber family a visit on Christmas, although it ends up being his last.
In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories retold by Alvin Schwartz, 1984.
This is
a collection of classic scary stories based on folktales from around the
world. A special section in the back of
the book explains more about where the stories came from.
This book was a favorite scary book of mine when I was a kid, and the stories are the type that kids commonly like to tell at camp or at sleepovers to spook each other. Stories like these stay with you for years!
Sometimes, you can find individual stories from this book read aloud on YouTube. The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.
Stories in the Book:
The Teeth – A boy meets a series of strange people with increasingly long teeth. Based on a story from Suriname. (Here is a video of someone reading this story as an example.)
In the Graveyard – A woman sees bodies carried into a graveyard. Based on the song “Old Woman All Skin and Bone.”
The Green Ribbon – A girl wears a green ribbon around her neck for her entire life, refusing to explain to even her husband why she wears it, until she is old and about to die. Based on a European folk tale. Originally, it was a red thread.
In a Dark, Dark Room – Classic slumber party story! “In a dark, dark wood, there was a dark, dark house.” What will it all lead to? It is known in Europe and America.
The Night It Rained – A man gives a boy a ride home on a rainy night. When he returns the next day to pick up the sweater he loaned the boy, he gets an eerie surprise. Based on a class of ghost story known as “The Ghostly Hitchhiker,” which has many variants.
The Pirate – When Ruth visits her cousin’s house, her cousin tells her that her room is haunted by the ghost of a pirate. Based on a British folktale.
The Ghost of John – A short poem. The author of this book first heard this from a young girl in California in 1979.
Jestress's Forgotten Books and Stories 