This stories in this anthology of folktales, garnered from a variety of sources, are sometimes funny, oftentimes familiar, and always marvelously scary. Alvin Schwartz, noted authority on folklore, gathered material for this book using a number of research techniques: huddled in a barn loft with friends telling scary stories, sitting around a Boy Scout campfire, and from the archives, articles, and collections of scholars and librarians.
The book is divided into five chapters, each dedicated to different types of tales. The first chapter (�Aaaaaaaaaaah!�) features �jump� stories, complete with instructions on how to get the desired shocking results. �He Heard Footsteps Coming Up the Cellar Stairs...� is all about ghosts. �They Eat Your Eyes, They Eat Your Nose� has scary tales �about all kinds of things,� including a grave, a witch, and worms eating your corpse. �Other Dangers� features tales of more recent origins, with stories that are popular on high school and college campuses. Rather than supernatural threats, these horrifying happenings could actually occur � and are meant to be told that way. One story, �The Babysitter,� was used as the basis of a movie. The book concludes as it began, with another �Aaaaaaaaaaah!� chapter, featuring scary stories meant to make you laugh.
The author uses varying techniques to tell his tales. Some are rhymes with musical notation (�The Hearse Song�), some provide alternate endings (�The Big Toe�), and some are described as scary games, complete with a list of materials, to be use at parties (�The Dead Man�s Brains"). One of the most effective narrative techniques is the use of story-telling vernacular, incorporating terms such as �easy-like,� �quiet-like,� and �terrible scared.�
Schwartz includes a description of sources he used in compiling his material for the book. True to the folktale genre, these stories have no known author, but have been passed down by word of mouth. The stories have origins in many lands, including Germany, England, and the Americas. Some were first told by college students in the mid-twentieth century, some originated with soldiers during World War I, and others date from the middle ages. A few are believed to have originated with Indians in Canada and the United States. They all have been told and re-told, and no one knows who the original story-tellers were.
The black and white expressionist illustrations by Stephen Gammell are what really give these stories a gut punch. Adults have been known to gape in horror at the zombies, ghouls, and monsters that drip, ooze, and slime their way through the pages. They could undoubtedly be nightmare fodder for younger children, and discretion should be used when introducing this book to young ones. That being said, the images effectively complement the stories, making them scarier than words alone could ever do.
Most people enjoy being thrilled or scared, as long as it stays within the bounds of comfort. The tales in this book, whether funny, gross, scary, or ridiculous, provide an element of fright that most children can relish and enjoy. Middle school students are probably the most appropriate audience, but high schoolers and adults, as well, can enjoy these stories, that may hearken back to some dark and stormy night in their past.
Related Website:
The Moonlit Road: http://www.themoonlitroad.com