#Alvin Schwartz

[bizarrobrain]

The Green Ribbon from In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories - Illustrated by Dirk Zimmer, written by Alvin Schwartz

#Dirk Zimmer #Alvin Schwartz #In a Dark Dark Room and Other Scary Stories #The Green Ribbon #Books

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

#short story collection #short story collections #scary stories to tell in the dark #alvin schwartz #20th century literature #english language literature #american literature #have you read this short fiction? #book polls #completed polls

[bracketsoffear]

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (Alvin Schwartz, ill. Stephen Gammell) "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a collection of short stories, written for children. The stories themselves are pretty standard stories that are just spooky enough for kids, but the illustrations are what most people remember. Each story is accompanied by a picture that are still unnerving to look at as adults, let alone as kids. Growing up with this book, it felt like a test of bravery just to turn the page. It reminds me a lot of the Season 4 TMA episode, in Callum Brodie's domain - an avatar of The Dark planting images of monsters in kids' heads and letting their imaginations do the rest of the work in scaring them."

Stolen Sun (Korney Chukovsky) "A Russian children's poem that narrates how the crocodile consumed the Sun and how the bear gave him a proper pummeling and forced him to release the star back into the sky. No, it doesn't make sense in context either, but it does take on the motifs of Slavic myths about a dragon stealing the Sun and imprisoning it for thirty-three years, cueing global night and cold."

#dark poll #the dark #poll #the magnus archives #leitner tournament #Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark #Alvin Schwartz #Stephen Gammell #Stolen Sun #Korney Chukovsky

[a-typical]

#scary stories to tell in the dark #Alvin Schwartz #short story #horror story #scary story #Stephen Gammell #folklore #books #literature #atypicalreads #nsnv #bright image #song

[banned-library]

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK by Alvin Schwartz. (New York: Harper Collins, 1981). Illustrated by Stephen Gammell.

source

#book blog #books #banned books #book cover #books books books #bookaholic #ghost stories #alvin schwartz #american folklore #americana #stephen gammell

[spiltsoup]

“Susannah this edible ain’t shi-”

#scary stories to tell in the dark #scary stories #alvin schwartz #the 2010 illustrations hold a special place in my heart but wow stephen’s work is fucking masterful #oh susannah! #tagging the other artist too b/c he deserves recognition #stephen gammell #brett helquist #soup.txt

[donclasico]

“ The Girl with the Green Ribbon ”. Watercolor and acrylics on 300g GVARRO paper. Based on Alvin Schwarzt short horror tale with the same title.

#amateur artist #perewong #catalunya #costa brava #empordà #pladel’estany #garrotxa #la selva #alvin schwartz #the girl with the green ribbon #in a dark dark room #horror #terror #gothic #goth aesthetic

[roseunspindle]

March 2024 Reading Wrap-up

Very engrossing. Also very vague on who's side is lying the least. ^_^

A fun little addition to the Kane Chronicles. Did want to beg that healer kid to please stop experimenting on themselves. ^_^'

Fun little read, though I think I prefered the drawings to most of the stories.

Finally finished this one. You can tell how unenthusatic Harry is about participating in the tournament. (Also very annoyed with Ron for his BS and even more annoyed with Hermione for pushing mostly Harry into forgiving Ron for being an ass.) Shame on Harry and Ron for their treatment of their dates. I wish Krum would have remained a main character from here on out. I really liked him. Poor Winky.

Three for three so far on me loving Kalynn Bayron's books, this one sucks you in pretty quickly.

Certainly began wondering if any kids were going to die in this book. Also seriously Mr. Mysterious Toyshop owner... full disclosure on the things you see is requested.

re-read, naturally the very beginning of the nod to the gremlins is always hilarious.

Qui-gon is a bit of a dick...not everyone is going to fall to the dark side dude!

Also the Jedi must be doing something wrong where children genuinely feel they are "failures" if they do not become knights. Also the "we are not to know we are to do" massively rankles. I did like the arch Obi-wan went on in the book. Your light saber shouldn't be your only answer to everything.

#daemons of the shadow realm #hiromu arakawa #Kane Chronicles #Brooklyn House Magician's Manual #Rick Riordan #scary stories to tell in the dark #Alvin Schwartz #Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire #you're not supposed to die tonight #kalynn bayron #Monster Blood #r.l. stine #pet shop of horrors #jedi apprentice #The Rising Force #Dave Wolverton #March 2024 #booklr

[godzilla-reads]

🎃 Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell

When I was in elementary school I remember checking this book out from the media center and staying up late to read it by flashlight, getting spooked by the different short stories and even more scared by Stephen Gammell’s drawings.

It’s was fun to reread this again! My two favorites are “The Viper” and “The White Wolf”, which also stuck out to me when I was young.

#godzilla reads #scary stories to tell in the dark #alvin schwartz #stephen gammell #book review #reading #reads #horror books #young readers #book blog #bibliophile #bookish #bookworm #book blurb

[the-slithery-dee]

“The Slithery Dee, “ Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark"( 1981) by Alvin Schwartz. Illustrations by Stephen Gammell.

#slithery dee #dark aesthetic #stephen gammell #alvin schwartz #horror #scary stories #scary stories to tell in the dark #macabre #dark fantasy #occult #halloween #eerie

[galwithalibrarycard]

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Moodboards: "The Window"

[She] found herself staring... at a shrunken face, like that of a mummy. Its yellow-green eyes gleamed like a cat's eyes... [The creature] twisted its long bony fingers into her hair, pulled back her head, and sank its teeth into her throat!

#scary stories to tell in the dark #my edits #litedit #alvin schwartz #halloween #vampires #the window

[haileysreads]

Black books with red titles.

#books #scary stories to tell in the dark #alvin schwartz #coraline #neil gaiman #reading #reader #bookblr #bookworm #booklover #booksbooksbooks #book photography

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

#short story collection #short story collections #more scary stories to tell in the dark #alvin schwartz #20th century literature #english language literature #american literature #have you read this short fiction? #book polls #completed polls

[bracketsoffear]

Maybe You Will Remember (Alvin Schwartz) "A girl, Rosemary, and her mother are on vacation in Paris. Rosemary's mother is ill, so Rosemary is sent to get medicine, but ultimately has her time wasted by the driver on the way back, and when she returns to the hotel, nobody recognizes her, telling her she has the wrong place. Her mother is gone, too, and when Rosemary asks to see the room they stayed in as proof they were there, the clerk shows her a completely unfamiliar setup, making Rosemary wonder what happened to her. In the appendix of the book, the scenario is explained. (see spoilers under the cut)"

Gas Light/Angel Street (Patrick Hamilton) "Under the guise of kindness, Jack Manningham is slowly torturing his fragile wife Bella into insanity in his efforts to cover his search for treasure from his diabolical past. He makes her think she is forgetting things and rattles her nerves with the flickering gaslight, which he controls from another room. One day, when Jack is out, Bella has an unexpected caller: kindly Inspector Rough from Scotland Yard. Rough is convinced that Jack is a homicidal maniac wanted for a murder committed fifteen years earlier in this very house. Gradually the Inspector restores Bella's confidence in herself and as the evidence against Jack unfolds.

The play that inspired the movie 1994 "Gaslight" which brought the term "gaslighting" into the public eye."

Spoilers: Rosemary's mother was sick with the plague, and the doctor, recognizing it, knew she would be dead very quickly. Rosemary was put on a wild goose chase for the medicine and given a driver who would delay her, with the doctor and hotel staff working to dispose of her mother's body and re-decorate the hotel room while Rosemary was away. With Rosemary unable to verify that she was in the hotel, and unknowing that her mother died of plague, the hotel avoided any negative publicity that would have occurred if anyone were to find out a guest had the plague. The hotel's PR was saved, but Rosemary was left doubting her sanity.

#spiral poll #the spiral #poll #the magnus archives #leitner tournament #Maybe You Will Remember #Scary Stories 3: More Tales To Chill Your Bones #Alvin Schwartz #Gas Light #Angel Street #Patrick Hamilton

[picturebookshelf]

In A Dark, Dark Room (1984)

Story: Alvin Schwartz -- Art: Dirk Zimmer

#in a dark dark room #alvin schwartz #dirk zimmer #1980s #80s #halloween #this always felt like a precursor to #scary stories to tell in the dark #like the junior version #scholastic #picture book #chapter book #kid book #kidlit #children's book #child horror

[weirdstuffinthewoods]

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

I'm awful at starting niche blogs, so I'm trying to stick to what I know and love. Something I know very well and love very much is this box set right here that I'm still mad at myself for getting rid of (I bought the 3-book treasury it's just not the SAME)

If you're a millennial of any age, you were probably traumatized by one or more of these bad boys. Alvin Schwartz sat down in the late 70s (book 1 was published in 1981!) and said, "you know what? I'm gonna scare the pants off a bunch of kids and they'll thank me for it later." And you know what? I kinda do.

I've spent a lot of time trying to find the root of my horror obsession, and I thought it was seeing the 1990 made-for-TV version of IT at a sleepover in 3rd grade, which resulted in two traumatic years of night terrors, calmed only by...reading the book it was based on? And then all of Stephen King's other works that were definitely not appropriate for a barely 9-10 year old? (For years, I'd skip the adulthood sections of IT when I read it because I found them so boring, so I had a half-finished story in my mind. Go figure.) But that wasn't it. I thought maybe it was finding the Informania: Ghosts and Informania: Vampires books at the Scholastic Book Fair and poring over them obsessively for years (more on this at a later date) but nope.

It was Scary Stories, Alvin Schwartz, and Stephen Gammell.

If you want some of the story surrounding these books, I recommend the Prime/Freevee documentary "Scary Stories". I remember none of it, but that's the ADHD and I can't help it.

From a quick Wikipedia search (they have never steered me wrong and this is a for-fun blog y'all), it looks like Alvin Schwartz is a folklore dude, which I aspire to be. He published multiple other kids' books of folklore aside from the Scary Stories trilogy, including A Twister of Twists, A Tangler of Tongues, but these were illustrated by a dude named Glen Rounds and I mean look:

A little weird, but not nightmare-inducing by any means. Although the amount of hair is concerning. American folklore gets lost in the shuffle a lot so it's cool for kids to see it. Then, a bit before 1981, he meets this fuckin' guy:

Who yes appears harmless but single-handedly molded me as a person with just some watercolor and pencil. Without his illustrations, Scary Stories wouldn't have the legacy they do today. Proof? The books were rereleased in 2011 with different illustrations. From the guy who illustrated the Series of Unfortunate Events books (Brett Helquist). I'm sure those were fine but like come on.

as compared to

Which one is a kid (ie me) going to cover with one hand while desperately trying to read the other page?

Stephen Gammell has a decades-long career which is briefly highlighted in this Bloody Disgusting article, excitingly enough. Before Scary Stories, he actually did another scary book series for kids which has some unsettling illustrations

and he did some historical illustrations for stuff like Thunder at Gettysburg and Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust which no I will not be looking up because I need to sleep tonight.

The article also goes on to mention how amazing Schwartz's research abilities were considering none of these stories were original- they were just collected from around the US and the world and compiled into a (not kid-friendly, no, but) kid-interesting version. There were also audiobooks (books on cassette? I guess?) for at least one of them so I assume all three, and I distinctly remember (I'll point to the exact stories later):

sitting:

-in broad daylight

-at the reading table in my classroom, probably 3rd grade too

-headphones on, volume up

-sweating absolute buckets because I was listening to this baby which ETSY SOMEHOW HAD

ARE YOU JOKING ETSY??? I'm okay though I don't need the nightmares back.

George S. Irving deserved every penny he got for this work and a whole lot more because that man scared the shit out of me. Also found out as I was reading his Wikipedia article that he played Heat Miser in The Year Without A Santa Claus. Well. The more you know, I guess.

Anyway, going forward, I'm going to go in depth on some of my favorites, and hopefully you come with! Send me questions or suggestions on stuff you want me to talk about or look at :)

Also yes I've seen the movie no I will not talk about it here but maybe later because it's been awhile since I saw it

#alvin schwartz #scary stories #scary stories to tell in the dark #stephen gammell