Madison Meeks – Media Director

mvm7037@psu.edu

Photo Credit: Stephen Gammell / Scholastic 

Stories that cause people to jump in fright: ghost tales are told on spooky nights. “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” by Alvin Schwartz is a book of short horror stories perfect for anyone that loves a creepy tale late at night. Originally published on October 14, 1981, the anthology contains little over two dozen short horror stories. In the book, five chapters divide the 29 stories. Every story is another tale waiting to be told, complete with an illustration drawn by Stephen Gammell. 

Each chapter has its very own name and meaning of the chapter except for chapters 1 and 5, which are both titled “Aaaaaaaaaaah”. The first chapter is filled with “jump scare” stories. The second chapter is about ghost stories. Chapter three is all kinds of scary stories. The fourth chapter is stories that have been supposedly passed down. The fifth chapter is filled with a story that is supposed to make the reader laugh. Some stories have two endings to them such as a story in the first chapter called “The Big Toe”. “The Big Toe” follows a child who finds a big toe in the garden.  The child takes the toe into the house with him and showed it to his mother, who then put it in their soup for dinner. Which is gross by the way. Later that night, the boy hears the voice of the owner of the toe asking where the toe was. The story has two ending for the reader to enjoy. 

Another story in the anthology is called “The Haunted House”. The tale is about a preacher who comes in contact with a ghost murdered years past. The preacher wants to see if he could put to rest a spirit that has been haunting a house for years. Upon making contact, the ghost asks if the preacher could find who had murdered her all those years before. Once the preacher found the killer, the culprit was taken to jail. The ghost repaid him with a sack of money. 

While there is a lot to say about “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark”, the readers will surely be in for a fright reading these horror stories. This scary story anthology received a movie adaptation released in 2019. I hope that readers will enjoy not only “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” but also the rest of the “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” series.