Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

by Alvin Schwartz, Stephen Gammell (Illustrator)

Overview

This spooky addition to Alvin Schwartz's popular books on American folklore is filled with tales of eerie horror and dark revenge that will make you jump with fright. There is a story here for everyone — skeletons with torn and tangled flesh who roam the earth; a ghost who takes revenge on her murderer; and a haunted house where every night a bloody head falls down the chimney. Stephen Gammell's splendidly creepy drawings perfectly capture the mood of more than two dozen scary stories — and even scary songs — all just right for reading alone or for telling aloud in the dark.

If You Dare!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062682826
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	07/25/2017
Series:	Scary Stories , #1
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	28,982
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	640L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Alvin Schwartz is known for a body of work of more than two dozen books of folklore for young readers that explores everything from wordplay and humor to tales and legends of all kinds. His collections of scary stories—Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Scary Stories 3, and two I Can Read books, In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories and Ghosts!—are just one part of his matchless folklore collection.

Brett Helquist's celebrated art has graced books from the charming Bedtime for Bear, which he also wrote, to the New York Times–bestselling A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket to the glorious picture book adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Something Was Wrong

One morning John Sullivan found himself walking along a street downtown. He could not explain what he was doing there, or how he got there, or where he had been earlier. He didn't even know what time it was.

He saw a woman walking toward him and stopped her. "I'm afraid I forgot my watch," he said, and smiled. "Can you tell me the time?" When she saw him, she screamed and ran.

Then John Sullivan noticed that other people were afraid of him. When they saw him coming, they flattened themselves against a building, or ran across the street to stay out of his way.

"There must be something wrong with me," John Sullivan thought. "I'd better go home."

He hailed a taxi, but the driver took one look at him and sped away.

John Sullivan did not understand what was going on, and it scared him. "Maybe somebody at home can come and get me," he thought. He found a telephone and called his wife, but a voice he did not recognize answered.

"Is Mrs. Sullivan there?" he asked.

"No, she is at a funeral," the voice said. "Mr. Sullivan was killed yesterday in an accident downtown."

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Copyright © by Alvin Schwartz. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Editorial Reviews

A fine collection of short tales to chill the bones of young and old with interesting notes for folktale buffs.

New York Public Library

This new edition is handsome and accessible; now young readers have a choice of how scared they want to be—just a little, or a whole lot. ” — Horn Book Magazine

From the Publisher

This new edition is handsome and accessible; now young readers have a choice of how scared they want to be—just a little, or a whole lot.

Horn Book Magazine