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.
