Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Schwartz, Alvin. 1981. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Ill. by Stephen Gammell. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-440170-7.

When I first opened the reading list for class I wasn’t sure why Scary Stories was in the “Traditional Literature” section. But when I read the book I understood. Schwartz didn’t write these stories; he compiled them from various collections and from stories told to him. Some of them are very old folktales, some are urban legends, but none have identified authors.

The stories have many characteristics of traditional literature. We don’t find out much about the characters, and the settings are similarly sketchy – often just “a haunted house” or “a field” or “near a lake.” The payoff in reading them comes from the resolution of the simple plot. And despite the title, the resolution is as likely to come in the form of a joke or a gross-out as a real atmospheric scare. (Witness the end of “Wait Till Martin Comes” or “The Slithery-Dee” for examples.)

The black-and-white illustrations by Gammell strike just the right note to accompany the stories. Many of the illustrations are nods to the stories’ roots in history; the hearse illustrating “The Hearse Song,” for instance, looks like it’s from the same era as a Model T. The paperback edition I checked out of the library has a shiny silver cover with an actively-decomposing, running man on it – sure to give street cred to any kid who is seen carrying the book around.

There’s a section of notes at the end of the stories and an introduction at the beginning. The introduction seems targeted to young readers, giving pointers on how best to tell a scary story. The notes seem geared more for adults, although kids who’ve read the book and who don’t balk at words like “publications” and “antecedents” might find that the notes are interesting for the extra details – and even a couple more stories, told briefly – that they include.

This book would be great in a Halloween display, with its eye-catching (not to say freaky) cover art. Booklist says, “Sure to provoke chills along the spine” (book jacket).

To say that this book and its two sequels are very popular at our library is a huge understatement. It’s difficult to turn the pages of the copy I read because they’re so worn down. Louisa May Alcott once wrote that her goal was for her books to have the dirtiest covers of any books in the library. By that measure this book is a big success!