Epic Win: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Submitted by Priscilla O
We’d forgotten all about the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series until we saw the above photograph. Stephen Gammell’s illustrations brought all of the terror flooding back into our memories. If you were lucky enough to check this one out of your school library (since it was always checked out) or your parents ordered it for you through the Scholastic Books program, you probably had the wits scared out of you more than once while reading it.
Not until we started researching did we find out that Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was the most contested book between 1990-2000 because of it’s sometimes graphic descriptions of violence. We’re glad the old fuddy-duddy’s who tried to have this book removed from our libraries didn’t succeed, because our literary experiences growing up would have been far less rounded without this great collection.
OMGZ, FURST< HAHRHRHAHRHARHARAR I MAKE PEOPLE WANT TO KILL ME!
RANDOM! I just bought the anthology at Borders for $10 not 3 hours ago!!!! I loved this book as a kid, and I thought I should get it for my future kids.
Watch I scar them for life…
Yea, I still have this book in my library. I still don’t get why anybody would want to eat a toe though…
I was a middle school librarian for the past 2 years and I had about 12 different copies of the Scary Stories series and they were ALWAYS checked out. About 3 copies fell apart when I was there, so of course I bought replacements. I’ve never read a word of the series, but any book that is checked out all the time is OK with me!
I bought all of them from half priced books.
I remember memorizing the entire poem of the man from leeds
(there once was a man who lived in leeds, who filled his garden full of seeds.) The poem was driving me nuts later in life, so I had to find it.
I had a bit of an overactive imagination when I was a kid and I heard that toe story at a brownie campout when I was nine. For years I heard the thumping up the stairs and the chanting “Where’s my big toe?”
YES! These books (along with, but more than, Goosebumps) made me the warped creature I am today. I still read ‘em every now and again but it’s those pictures that still creep me out. I remember just looking at the books for hours as a kid.
Ditto!!
This introduced me to the world of the macabre which I still love! The pictures were especially great – like H.P. Lovecraft in pen & ink!
The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play picallo with your snout.
It’s pinochle in your snout!
stop you’re giving me flash backs. Chills up my spine
Oh my God, the pictures from these books were horrifying. That sketchy drawing. I remember there was one story with a picture of an eyeless dead wife my friends and I always had to skip over.
I understand completely I couldn’t look at many of the pic for more than a moment
i could barely look at any picture
o yeah….
whooos got my money…..????
*shivers*
I remember EXACTLY the one you’re talking about, and it always made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I would look at it just to scare myself.
I know! I couldn’t read these as a kid. The pics gave me nightmares!
Watching the video gave me goosebumps….
The pictures scared me more than any of the stories. I could handle the stories, it was the pictures that gave me nightmares.
I agree completly. I think there were like 2 or 3 different volumes of this book and I read all of them. But with Some of the stories I would have to fold the book over so I couldn’t see the pictures. I got nightmares from those things!
One of the stories that stands out the most in my memory is the old woman who steals a bone from a grave for her stew and the spirit of the body comes and demands it back…or something. I’m not sure why, I KNOW that wasn’t the scariest one in there…And I think there was one about something coming down after someone from the ceiling.
And yes, the pictures were/are positively ghastly. I remember how just looking at the cover of one of the books (especially after reading it’s contents) would be enough to trigger the nighttime colly-wobbles. Shudder!
“colly-wobbles” ?!?
I love that word, I hope you don’t mind me stealing it.
personally, I use Jibblies
Ah, yes. Books I gleefully pushed on my child as soon as he reached age.
And he fervently pushed away because they were way way way too scary. (And that was just the pictures! Just imagine what the stories would’ve done!)
He managed some Goosebumps later, and a little scary Wishbone…..
Now he’s wanting to watch Alien.
….I think I win.
not sure why, but i always got freaked out by the girl who had the spider eggs growing on her face… was that in the original book, or one of the sequels? none-the-less, i STILL look around for spiders before i get into bed
That picture always got me, too. :<
O-M-G!
The spider one will be stuck in my memory forever. Freaked me the hell out when I read it. But I never stopped reading so I dunno what that means
I LOVE Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, but that picture scared the crap out of me! I still have mine *runs to bookcase*
Those books made me the creepy girl that I am today! My favorite story was the Wendigo. I don’t know why. I’m gonna go find mine and read it tonight
I was just thinking about these books a few days ago.
Loved the series, and I remember the controversy over them too. The pictures were pretty graphic from I guess the demographic that read it. But hey, kids need stuff like this.
I would stay up late late at night when I was younger, scaring myself silly reading these stories. I would then promptly run into my sister’s room and show her the pictures….she would proceed to beat me with the book until I was badly bruised, but her screams from seeing the old woman with no eyes would be nothing but satisfactory!
Correction! It was the eyeless wife, not woman! I’ve read all of the books its hard to remember them all!
i still have all of these books. i always brought them to sleepovers, them and my quija board. the pictures scared us more than anything!
Oh dear god. D: I remember these.
It’s because of a game from one of these books that I can’t have mirrors in my room if it’s dark and have to reach around in to the bathroom without looking inside if it’s dark ’cause I might see the mirror.
And yet I still loved them. xD
You too? I can’t look at mirrors in a dark room at all, I even avoid glass that can hold reflections!
Bloody Mary.
Bloody Mary.
Bloody Ma—–geez, I can’t even finish typing the chant, much less say it out loud!
I miss my copy of these books, I want an artbook of just the pictures!
For me it was playing the Any Ghost game at my friend’s birthday party. D:
This book = win.
I still have a copy hanging around somewhere. The graphics are truly sick!!
the picture about the girl who swallowed a spider or whatever, and it laid eggs in her mouth… that gave me nightmares for weeks. no book ever freaked me out like that xD
I never thought these stories were that scary. Then again, I was the one kid at the sleepover laughing hysterically at Saw (the original) when we were watching it at 11 o’ clock.
And also, commenting on the story being narrated, the term ‘wendigo’ means someone that has eaten so much human flesh that they aren’t even human anymore. It’s restricted to New England and the Appalachian areas of Indian culture. The person that wrote this story clearly didn’t feel like researching too well.
The Wendigo was also a supernatural or demonic entity that could turn humans into wendigo as well. The cannibalism was always the key element though.
lol i checked that book out from my local library and havent given it back yet. i dont think they care though cuz its been sitting on my shelf for the past 3 years. good times. scaryy ass book. “the hook” scared the crap outa me. i dont think ill ever let my bf take me out late at night now.
I remember those stories scared the hell out of me. I remember (I think it was from a sequel book) this story about a scarecrow that came to life and ended up killing this farm family. Skinned the wife and laid her out to dry on the roof of the farmhouse, I think. It’s been so long I can’t remember it too well. Loved to read that one, though, but I couldn’t bear to read it more than once a month or I’d have trouble sleeping.
As for the Wendigo, legends change and morph. Research or not, there are probably different definitions of a Wendigo. I remember hearing it as almost a werewolf. So… different strokes for different folks.
Holy crap, that one was my favorite!! Well, as I got older, it was… lol! It terrified the sh*t out of me in elementary school!
Yes! I want to say his name was Harold. I was just thinking of that story the other day – it’s so graphic! Skinning someone and laying their skin on the roof!
I forgot how creepy the images in these books were, too. The two that stick wtih me are the image someone mentioned of the lady with no eyes (literally couldn’t look at that page) and for some reason the dead horse.
Yes, his name was Harold, but the person he killed was the one of the men who had made him. They had been mistreating him.
The dead horse was horrendously creepy, and if I remember correctly it had three hooves and one foot in a high-heeled shoe.
I always thought the scariest story was the one where the two little girls bargained with a gypsy for a drum. It was SO depressing.
Like the horse picture, some of the worst (and by worst I mean best!) drawings didn’t even have 100% to do with the story.
Think about the the drawing from Oh, Susana! *sudder*
Wendigo and that scare crow story were DA BEST!
those pictures were seriously horrifying.
my mother liked to pop in before i went to bed and held the pictures up so i could see them before i went to sleep. you know, this is just what we did back then.
I loved this book! I have to buy it again….must have…must have….
Oh… wow. I remember this book scaring the ever-loving %&*$ outta me.
Even still, can you imagine the stuffy parents and teachers that would want to burn this thing because it’s “traumatic” to kids? Thank God I had the opportunity to read it! I used to bring it to sleep-overs. XD
It wasn’t the stories themselves that were scary–it was those damn awesome pictures. The kind of pictures that gave you nightmares. I think the image that terrified me the most was the one from the story of the guy that went out into the swamp and, as clouds passed over the moon, he got his ?arm torn off. The image had his bottom jaw missing, those empty eyes, and those thin lines of God knows what going every which way.
The funniest image is of a man’s head giving the “Ooo?” look–you know, the one that looks startling like Lost’s Other’s “Leader” Ben.
I am proud to say I have all the original versions of the three, and was shocked when I learned they nearly (or did?) get banned.
OMG, I remember that book
These books were horrifying! I recall owning three volumes, and audio books with some creepy guy reading the stories… Whereas most “horror” books in the kids section were silly, these were genuinely creepy. And yes, the illustrations made them all the more frightening.
YES! I used to listen to the audio books on my portable cassette player on long road trips at night to scare myself! So scary!
The pictures in these books…are the scariest pictures…I have ever seen…in my life. Period.
I LOVED these when I was in elementary school
the pictures still scare the crap out of me! they were the best books to have at a sleep over!
I totally remember these. Every time I go out to my car at night, I make sure to check the back seat for an axe-murderer because of the hook story.
Stephen Gammell’s illustrations are the source of every irrational fear I have had since the second grade. The fact that I am an adult now does not make the pictures any less frightening, and I mean FUNDAMENTALLY frightening. That doesn’t stop me from loving the illustrations. And even in my adulthood the old fears like to persist, such as my phobia of scarecrows (my undermind likes to insist on seeing them as rotting, crucifixion-type figures and I know there wasn’t a specific picture for that but it’s still Gammell’s fault goddamnit) and why I can’t watch the first Grudge movie. Good times.
Sir Gammell lives in my hometown. We’ve been considering tracking him down and shaking his hand/punching him in the face.
Everything about your reply, Kilgannon, is made of win. There isn’t a sentence here that didn’t entertain! The “punchline” had me in stitches because I’m not sure I’d know what to do if I met Mr Gammell face to face. One or the other!
Do both. Just for good measure.
Yup, these books were terrifying specifically because of the pictures (especially when you’re in 2nd grade reading them!), although there was one story that always got me. I forget which book it was in, but it’s the one where this guy is staying in a small cabin and he sees two eyes in the distance, and eventually one night he wakes up and there’s a vampire face or something in the window.
Jesus Christ. The one about the lady who lived by a cemetary and then one of the mummified corpses went vampire and came and tried to bite her throat out? That one was always the story that I thought was much scarier than the picture. Still won’t stand in front of an uncovered window at night.
OMG THIS!
My mom bought me the book series from the Scholastic sale right before pawning me and my brother off on her folks for the weekend. They live in the middle of a field surrounded by like 20 acres of woods. Try sitting up in a tiny bedroom in a little farmhouse, unable to sleep cuz it’s not your bed, at midnight reading that particular story. Worse yet, the window had these see-through curtains that didn’t close all the way.
I was willing to get beaten up by my brother and eventually fell asleep on top of the hope chest at the foot of the bed in the room he slept in just to make sure that I’d have some “protection” from the monster with the different colored eyes.
But then don’t forget that story about the new bride who locked herself in the chest, died, and then they found her skeleton years later. That picture’s one of the most horrifying in the books. Wouldn’t sleep near my mother’s antique chest for years, still don’t like it. Remember? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/Golding/Stephen%20Gammell/571338c0.jpg Those pictures and stories used to have me at every turn.
My family had a copy of Song and Dance Man, a light-hearted children’s book that also happened to be illustrated by Stephen Gammell; I couldn’t bring myself to read that book until I was late in high school. For some reason, the color illustrations made it creepier in my mind…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_and_Dance_Man
I remember this series of books scaring me silly. Mostly because my older sisters loved reading me and my friend who was sleeping over the stories right before “bedtime.” I think this may be part of the reason I have such a hard time sleeping in an unfamiliar place at night…. then again maybe not, who knows.
OK, now i NEED to go out and buy these books! I forgot all about them! I always checked them out at the library when I could, just to scare myself s***less. By the pictures of course, and not so much by the stories themselves.
For some dumb reason, the one story that scared me the most out of aaalll those stories, was the one with the girls having a sleepover at someone’s house who lived right next to the cemetery and they dared one of the other girls to go out to one of the graves and drive a stake or something into the ground and come back.. she ended up accidentally driving it through the back of her nightgown and when she was on her way back, she thought the ghost of the person had a hold of her nightgown instead, so they found her dead in the morning because she had died of fright.
I never owned any of these, but one of my old Elementary School friends did and we would read them during recess or at lunch. The stories didn’t really scared me, but the pictures…Good God, when I was watching the video up there I refused to actually watch the video for fear one of those illustrations would show up, I just listened to the audio.
WTF this book is considered retro? I got it a few years ago brand new (in fact, all three in a set) and I STILL read them.
Next up on this site: the Nintendo DS! Remember before, when we couldn’t wash dishes with them…?
Let’s see, it’s retro because those who read them as kids are now almost adults (in my case) or are already adults. (Depending on when they read them.)
You can get Romeo and Juliet brandnew at Boarders too.
Definitely scared the crap out of me as a kid. I’m SO glad that this (and the sequel) were in my elementary library! The pictures were terrifying, especially the one with a severed arm holding a sausage that, as it turns out, was made of meat from the guy’s ground-up-like-hamburger wife!! AHHHHH!! Come to think of it, I can’t believe they let us read that!!
Good win!
I have these books to thank for a lifelong love of everything horror.
ditto
i still have these, still make me laugh too
zOMG I’ll never forget this book! I remember reading it it in grade school, so it’s nostalgia win for me as I’m 30 now. I had a friend who wanted me to tell her scary stories during our sleepovers and I remember telling her the Wendigo one several times at her request because it freaked her out LOL. The illustrations were brilliantly macabre, and….oozy. I too was pretty horrified at the eyeless wife but like a trainwreck…
The book had one comic relief story in it -The Viper, remember that one?
I vant to vash your vindows!
The story about the Wendigo still gives me chills to this day!
Yes, The Window was indeed the scariest. I couldn’t sleep near a window for ages after that one, which means that there were a lot of nights where I only fell asleep out of pure exhaustion.
But who didn’t love the Slithery-Dee?
i would constantly check these out at my school library! sadly once i got to high school i forgot all about the macabre and sheer grotesque quality of all the stories.
something inside me calls out for these tales once more! to the central library i do go!
Oh crap, it’s way too close to bedtime to be reading and reminiscing about these books! So embarrassing – I’m 24, but those illustrations (the crystal clear MEMORY of those illustrations) still give me anxiety. I used to chase my little brother around the house with the book, but always make sure it was NOT in my room when I went to bed (you know, in case the pictures crawled out during the night).
The spider girl was horrible…the feral girl raised by wolves (kind of a cool concept, right? NOT with that drawing!)… For some reason one image that has followed me all these years is from the story about a man who checked into a hotel and woke to find a strange woman leaning over his bed. She had long scraggly black hair, no neck, and this half-smile that even now freaks me out. I would imagine her leaning over the side of the bed when it was dark. AUGH!
Dear sweet merciful Jesus, I can’t even THINK about the pictures in those books without needing to sleep with the lights on!
Though recently I read a large collection of urban legends, and THERE THEY WERE! Nearly half of the legends I read were old news, I’d read them in these books as a kid! The “mexican hairless dog” that’s really a sewer rat… with rabies.
The spiders hatching in the girl’s face (shudder)
Even the Jersey Devil was in one. Remember, dogs aren’t the ONLY things that can lick hands…>x< *Massive attack of heebie-jeebies*
best books ever. well that and my side of the mountain were great elementary reads.
i remember reading this book in 4th grade
it was so scary
Oh how I loved these books and another one I had called “The Gobble-Uns’ll Getcha If You Don’ Watch Out!” (the whole book was written in some “back woods” kind of dialect)!! Of course, I went almost immediately from reading “The Cat In The Hat” to reading Edgar Allen Poe’s collected anthology. No, I suffered no ill effects at all…
Taily-Bone was in this one, right?
you would scream too if you stepped on a nail.
reply if you remember this!
I had such a love/hate relationship with these books. I remember one story that I believe was in the first book about a man and his dog staying in the house, and he kept hearing a voice calling something to him…then his dog started calling back to whatever it was. Then the thing calling fell down the chimney and turned out to be a severed head. My room was right behind the fireplace when I was a kid, and I was just sure one day something was going to drop down that chimney that wasn’t Santa.
The other one that creeped me out I believe was in the second or third book and involved an evil scarecrow ultimately skinning his maker. *shudder*
I don’t know why I was so drawn to them because they scared me so gosh darn bad…probably the reason I grew up to love horror movies.
I’m the same exact way!! I love horror movies even though they keep me from sleeping alone. XD thos book was like a horror movie but SCARIER. and for children (again, why was this for kids?!)
The one image that has haunted me since I first read the 3rd book is that ‘The Dream’ story with the woman leaning over the bed, no eyes, kinda fat. I now refuse to read that book. But, seriously, I was just reading the 1st and 2nd.
And for some reason for a year or so the image for ‘The Man in the Middle’ image (in the 2nd book) freaked me out.
My fourth-grade teacher had these in the classroom library; true to form, they were always “checked out.” I STILL get creeped out just thinking about the stories…although I did like the one about the woman who was accidentally buried alive and woke up as some men were trying to rob her grave. Never understood how that was scary, seeing as she didn’t wake up in a closed coffin with six feet of earth on top of her.
the one story that scared me sh*tless was the story where the girl saw glowing eyes in her window and that weird animal/monster/vampire came and attacked her. I have 3 huge windows in my bedroom and one of them is on a door that leads to the balcony.
if the stories didn’t make you pee yourself, the pictures did. looking back, this book should not have been made for children. XD
I totally remember being one of the few who got to check this out. It totally creeped me out, but it started me on a path towards more and more books that were scary or about the occult. I was addicted to that as a young teen.
MI – TI – DO – TI – WALKER! Haha the memory of some of these stories still affects how I act near windows or mirrors at night. The audio books were perfect to scare me senseless during night drives while the rest of my family (except for my dad who was driving) slept.
Ya this book totally freaked me out when I was younger, I just bought it again and I still have a hard time looking through it. Question though, because I was sure that this story was in one of those books but now I’m begginning to think I’m crazy.
Does anyone remember a story about 3 girls who saw a dead womans ghost by the river and they knew that whoever saw the woman first would die. Well it’s turns out they all saw it at the same time and they all die at different times in different ways and the last girl dies because the power went out and she has a sore throat so she goes to the closet to get what she thinks is cough syrup but it turns out to be haircolor.
Maybe I am crazy and I just made this up myself. Who knows.
yo,that story was wild i cant even explain it
I have the treasury with all three books!!
Oh man, just looking at the cover made my heart stop. I don’t remember the specific stories, but they were genuinely frightening. And the pictures… I’m definitely going to have nightmares tonight just thinking about it!