Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

This is another book that really hit me right between the eyes as a kid, and revisiting it with my kids as an adult, it’s nothing short of just creepy weirdness.

Guillermo Del Toro once said that kids' stories should be frightening, and this definitely fits the bill. The best part about it is how short the stories are, too, so I was able to break it up with my kid into a number of sittings.

This series was the most banned in the 1990s, or as my niece calls it, “the nineteen hundreds,” because she likes to make me feel old.

They are a beautiful, horrifying collection of spooky folktales and urban myths. Each one carefully researched and wonderfully written by Alvin Schwartz. The books were checked out so many times from the library their spines split. If the stories don’t make you wet the bed, the amazing illustrations by Stephen Gammell will.

What horror list would be complete without this infamous selection? Is there a more accessible horror collection? The Treasury collects all three Scary Stories books, preventing anyone from missing out on any of Schwarz’s memorable retellings of classic folklore and urban legend. These are the stories told around the campfires and slumber parties of youth. The stories still traded by adults when conversation turns to ghost stories. Though simply worded and easy to read, these are the stories that come to mind late at night when you’re all alone. Every horror enthusiast knows a creepy story or two, and at… show more.

This one was obvious, wasn’t it? The little books that were frequently put into elementary and middle school libraries that kept kids up all night were and still are a fantastic source of inspiration for not even just horror writers but any type of creative person. Complied of short stories from all over the globe and throughout history, the infamous collections are a segue into what people have thought was horrifying throughout time and space. Reading these collections will either turn an adolescent into an adult who can’t watch cable crime dramas without anxiety, or an adult who masters the… show more.