Hello friends, today we are going to upload Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark pdf to help you all. If you are searching to download it in PDF format then you have come to the proper page. The Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a horror Story for kids. These stories will definitely make you shake your head and bite your nails.
Renowned American author, journalist, and folklore researcher Alvin Schwartz in his book (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) collects the most striking themes that have become fundamental to the anthology of the modern genre of horror and horror. So friends you can also read ghost stories to tell in dark pdf to download its pdf.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark PDF Book by Alvin Schwartz
| Name of Book | Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark |
| Author | Alvin Schwartz |
| PDF Size | 4 MB |
| No of Pages | 132 |
| Language | English |
Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark PDF – Summary
| Sr.No. | Chapter Name | Stories |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | “The Big Toe” | Unpopular opinion: The trilogy’s opener, which will appear in the movie, is a total dud. Tasked with catching the reader’s attention after the book’s brief explainer introduction, “Strange and Scary Things,” this story is about a filthy little boy finding and harvesting a big toe from the ground to add to his family’s soup. Problem is, the toe’s owner shows up looking for its appendage, but how? Something like 85 percent of our foot control comes from the big toe, so I call bullshit on that corpse finding the boy post-dinner, pre-physical therapy. |
| 2. | “The Walk” | Now here’s a story that aptly portrays how the fear of oneself can be greater than the fear of the unknown. As a man walks down a dirt road, he comes across his mirror image. They make eye contact and are instantly terrified by one another. Try as we might, we’re unable to escape ourselves, so it’s true to life that the two continue down the same path, becoming increasingly scared of themselves. And that’s it. This is seemingly their eternity. Spooky, huh? |
| 3. | “What Do You Come For?” | Conspiracy theory: This story directly influenced Manfred Mann’s “I Came for You.” Without getting too deep into it, a disheveled man (“Wounded deep in battle, I stand stuffed like some soldier undaunted”) is determined … to repeat the line “I came for you” until he gets a record deal out of it. |
| 4. | “Me Tie Dough-Ty Walker”; The Little Black Dog” and “The Black Dog” | All three of these stories stick out because the horror relies not so much on suspense or spooks but on dogs dying. If you’re a dog lover, these are not for you. From a siren song meant to lure a dog to death to a phantom canine ready to kill man’s best friend for sport, hounds are haunted and hunted in equal measure and the survival rate is zero. This reveals the scariest part: Your own pending doom. Everyone knows anyone who is willing to kill man’s best friend is going to be down to kill you, too. |
| 5. | “A Man Who Lived in Leeds” | Simple and direct, the opening of this story informs us that “some say this rhyme doesn’t mean anything. Others are not so sure.” That’s surprising given that it’s a clear warning about keeping vigilant in the wake of backstabbers. And the story isn’t speaking in metaphors. It literally advises that one stay on the lookout for a penknife-wielding killer unless you want to die as blood runs down your back. |
| 6. | “Old Woman All Skin and Bones” | This is a summer bop about a lady who’s taking full advantage of the leisure season. After traveling to the church, she stops to rest for awhile. By the time she gets to the door, she thinks to herself, I’ll rest some more. This lady knows what’s up. |
| 7. | “Cold As Clay” | Speaking of summer bops, “Cold As Clay” could easily be a chart-topping country song. Set up as a ballad of star-crossed lovers, a farmer’s daughter falls for the farmhand. To keep the two apart, the farmer sends his daughter across the country to live with an uncle. The farmhand dies of a broken heart, which the father keeps from his daughter. He returns, however, one night atop a horse, knocks on the daughter’s door and tells her that her father has requested he come to get her. The two ride back on the horse, and the woman notices the man is as “cold as clay,” so she offers him a handkerchief to warm his head. When they return to the farm, the horse and farmhand vanish, leaving the father unable to keep his dark secret. Not only does he come clean to his daughter, he goes and tells the farmhand’s parents, who open his casket to discover his corpse is still there, but with the addition of a handkerchief around his head. Basically, this is the worst version of Trisha Yearwood’s “She’s in Love With the Boy.” |
| 8. | “The White Wolf” | This one could have cracked the top 50 if it weren’t so predictable. Want to avoid a gruesome death? Keep your promises. Or don’t and end up like Bill the butcher. After a stint with the meat cleaver, Bill hangs up his chainmail to hunt white wolves, which are overpopulating the region. He’s so good at his job that it becomes obsolete, and he makes a promise never to kill a white wolf again. Does he keep that promise, or does he try to bait a remaining wolf with a lamb only to be torn to pieces by the predator? As with a lot of these stories, which were written for children, there’s a clear moral. In this case, it’s pretty chill — keep your promises or die a gruesome death, kids. |
| 9. | “The Haunted House” | This story is a killer tale of female-executed revenge. After being murdered by her lover for her money, a woman haunts the last place she was alive. A well-meaning preacher catches wind that this haunt is happening and sets out to remedy it. Luckily for him, this spook is more than a game. She requests the preacher dig up her hidden bones so she can rest properly before instructing him to take her ring-clad pinky finger to the church to place on the collection plate. The preacher does as he’s told. The following Sunday, when the murderous dudebro gets passed the collection plate, the finger sticks to him. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t shake it, which leads to a confession and his hanging. What sweet justice this is. |
| 10. | “The Guests” | While this tries to impart the messed-up lesson that if you’re very stupid, you deserve whatever scary thing happens to you, in the end, it falls flat. A couple travelling to visit family stops at a complete stranger’s house to see if they rent out rooms. They don’t, but they will for this couple. Red flag! But then the stranger makes their cake and coffee and refuses to accept any money for their kindness. Red flag! The couple spends a comfy night and leaves the next morning only to be told by a local server at a diner that there’s no such stranger in town and that the house they claim to have stayed at burned down a long time ago. The couple returns and sure enough it turns out they had spent the night with a ghost in a haunted house, but they did so for free, so really the only scary thing here is knowing a visit with the in-laws is just around the corner. |
| 11. | “The Hearse Song” | The imagery in this one is top-notch, even if it’s one of at least ten stories that have the exact line “the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out.” I get it, though. There are only so many ways to describe decomposition to children. Some of the more choice descriptions, however, include “Your stomach turns a slimy green / And pus pours out like whipping cream / You spread it on a slice of bread / And that’s what you eat when you are dead.” Sounds suspiciously like some sort of Flutternutter sandwich for the underworld. I bet it’s delicious. |
| 12. | “The Girl Who Stood on a Grave” | This story presents a theory that is especially easy to test. It posits that if you stand on a grave after dark, the person buried below it will grab you and pull you under. Whether “under” refers to beneath the grass or into the darkest hell imaginable is unclear. Either way, it seems inconvenient to meet this fate. It also seems unlikely, which is why the girl in this story takes the dollar bet to stand on a grave. She’s instructed to stick a knife in the dirt to prove she was there. She plunges the knife into the ground of a grave she fancies, but what she doesn’t realize is that she lets it pierce her skirt first, which means she’s jerked back and falls to the ground when she tries to leave. Presumably, she spends the night screaming for help, but her friends don’t bother to look for her until later, and by that time she’s died of fright. This taps into the fear of fear itself, sure, but it also points out how stupidity can cost you your life. |
| 13. | “A New Horse” | A new horse is an old horse is a dead horse, of course. Seriously, these books take some sick pleasure in involving animals in their devilish ways. But sometimes the horse isn’t a horse at all and instead, it’s a man who’s been turned into an animal by magic. Does he take it lying down or does he buck? Oh, he most certainly bucks, exacting his revenge by placing the cursed saddle on its rightful owner and seeing how she likes being ridden hard before the discard. |
| 14. | “Alligators” | Alligators are scary, and they’re actually having a bit of a moment right now as gator fever spreads. From Crawl to Chicago’s Chance the Snapper, alligators are on the come-up. So how does this set of alligators rank? Let’s see. In this story, a woman is convinced her husband is trying to turn himself and their two sons into alligators. Sure enough, her entire family vanishes while three never-before-seen alligators are spotted at a local watering hole. It’s clear what happened here, which makes the scariest part of the story that no one will believe the woman. In fact, they don’t even bother trying to offer her another explanation for the disappearance of her family; instead, they throw her in the hospital because “everyone knows there aren’t any alligators around” there. Terrible advice: Up until this summer, there weren’t any alligators in Chicago, either. |
| 15. | “Room for One More” | I’ve seen this serviceable story praised elsewhere, and I can assure you the title took me aback because there’s little worse than being asked if there’s room for one more. There is never room for one more. If someone is asking if there’s room for one more, it’s because they’ve assessed the situation, found it to be crowded, but don’t give a shit and still want to get involved. In turn, if someone is insisting there is room for one more, they’re up to no good. Specifically, in this story, a hearse driver begins stalking Joseph Blackwell and calling to him, “There’s room for one more.” Joseph ignores him until he comes across one of the most formidable “room for one more” situations known to humankind, the office elevator. Sure enough, someone says, “There’s room for one more.” Joseph squishes in before realizing it’s the hearse driver, and off to hell they plummet. |
| 16. | “The Wendigo” | This story comes from a long tradition of campfire tales. Set in the cold, dark woods, we’re introduced to the namesake creature. It’s a mythical man-eater unable to satiate its murderous intentions and greedy desires. Told different ways by different people, this version focuses on the Wendigo’s ability to swoop in with the wind and carry its victims away so fast that their feet burn. The scariest part? The Wendigo is real. |
| 17. | “May I Carry Your Basket?” | Yes, please. I’m tired. Seriously though, I would love for you to carry my groceries. Here we have Good Samaritan Sam offering to carry a woman’s basket. He can’t really make out this woman’s face because it’s bundled up in a scarf. Or is it? No sooner than when Sam takes the basket does he hear from it a woman saying, “That’s very nice of you.” Sam freaks and the woman’s body and her disembodied head began chasing him and biting at his legs. Why is this scarier than some of the other stories? Because it reinforces the notion that helping others only gets you grief, which is a dark and dangerous thought. |
| 18. | “The Hook” | Here’s a car-related classic you’ve probably heard before. Two kids hit the road, and then park to get frisky without their parents interrupting. While getting down to business, a news report interrupts the music playing on the stereo. It seems a prisoner with a hook for a hand has escaped from a nearby prison and is armed and dangerous. The couple argues about whether they should pack up and leave. To no one’s surprise, the sexist boyfriend gets pissy and says, “Girls are always afraid of something,” while the girlfriend rationally suggests they get out of the immediate area of the prison. Before he finally agrees, she believes she hears something, but her boyfriend is still mad about not getting laid so he ignores her and drives her home. Once there, he manages to squelch his toxic masculinity long enough to walk her to her door, but when she invites him in for cocoa, he goes right back to being an asshole and declines. When he returns to his door, he sees a hook attached to the door handle. An oldie but goodie. |
| 19. | “The White Satin Evening Gown” | If you’ve ever rented the runway, scoured the thrift shops, or in general, avoided buying clothes brand new, this story, which was probably written by Capitalism itself, is here to scare you. A woman of little means is invited to dance but has nothing to wear. Her thrifty mother suggests she rent an outfit, so off to the pawnshop she goes. There, she finds the most beautiful white satin evening gown, which is a specific kind of mood if you’re wearing it to something other than your own wedding, so good for her. She has a wonderful time dancing the night away until she feels dizzy and decides to leave early. Once home, she goes to bed. The next morning, her mother finds her dead. The enjoyment of this story comes from its insanely specific explanation for her death. An autopsy indicates the woman was poisoned by embalming fluid. You see, the pawnbroker bought the garment from an undertaker’s helper who must have taken it off a corpse, and the embalming fluid that had rubbed off on it entered the woman’s skin as she got sweaty while getting down. Word to the wise, wash your second-hand items before wearing them. |
| 20. | “High Beams” | Another car-related classic, “High Beams,” is here to terrify anyone who has ever found themselves driving down a rural road alone at night. An aggressive truck driver tails the protagonist while flashing his brights. Given the size disparity between a car and an 18-wheeler, what seems to be a glaring case of road rage is scary enough. It’s the twist, however, that reveals the true horror. The truck driver had actually been trying to warn the driver that a stowaway was in the back seat waiting to strike. Each time the villain rose with the knife in hand to stab the driver, the truck driver flashed his lights to scare the villain back into the shadows. Chilling stuff. |
| 21. | “The Babysitter” | This is a classic story that hasn’t aged too well, even if it did spawn “The call is coming from inside the house.” First thing first, landlines are practically obsolete, so the idea of one ringing incessantly is a bit unbelievable to modern audiences. And if you have your phone on anything other than silent, you get what you deserve, which is probably a lot of ring-related anxiety and maybe death. Regardless, the man upstairs ends up being apprehended by the cops before he can do anything more than creepily smile at the babysitter and her temporary brood, making this more of a shake than a scare. |
| 22. | “The Viper” | Let’s dive into the funny sections of these books right away. I’m not saying there’s no room for humor in horror, and I appreciate the books ending with a little levity — sort of like when you would avoid nightmares by putting on a comedy after letting a horror movie scare the shit out of you as a kid — but most of these are instantly forgettable or frustratingly stupid. Without giving too much away, let’s just say all of this could have been avoided had the protagonist checked the peephole before opening her door and letting in a totally well-meaning, if slightly off, window washer. |
| 23. | “The Attic” | Attics have a long history of being scary. Often dark and dusty, the horrors of an attic can range from ritual sacrifice to adolescent incest. So it’s confounding that this story is somehow one of the least scary in the series. Although it hints at a gruesome death for man’s best friend, specifically Rupert’s dog, Sam, in this story, in the end, the horror hinges on the storyteller taking a pause after screaming “AAAAAAAAAAAH” and banking on somebody asking, ”Why did Rupert scream?” The big finale? He stepped on a nail. |
| 24. | “The Slithery-Dee” | The Slithery-Dee’s simple storyline paired with its comic-strip-like presentation makes it almost memorable. Though the reader never sees the Slithery-Dee in question, it’s safe to assume it’s a sea monster who eats animals — and a very curious creature with a long tail and the stance of a human — that dares to stroll along the coast. This seems ripe for resident fish-man obsessive Guillermo del Toro’s treatment, however, and with a little movie magic, we could be looking at a top-ten story that’s the darker version of The Shape of Water. Alas, this would-be palate cleanser in what’s sure to be an otherwise horrifying film will not be making the cut. |
| 25. | “Aaron Kelly’s Bones” | This one’s great because it taps into the fear of entrapment many people spend their entire life trying to avoid. It also features one hell of a horrific asshole. Aaron Kelly is a man who refuses to let his wife experience any sort of happiness or security after he dies (and quite frankly, I’m sure he was an asshole to her when he was alive, too). Although he doesn’t necessarily haunt her, he does make it extremely difficult for her to move on by refusing to stay in his coffin. Asserting that he “doesn’t feel dead,” his skeleton walks around looking shitty, but not shitty enough to convince the insurance company not to pay out his widow. And when the widow gets a chance to remarry, do you think Aaron allows it? Absolutely not; instead, he makes sure to chase off her suitor. Talk about dead weight. |
| 26. | “Wait till Martin Comes” | A man looking for shelter from the rain, which is a recurring theme throughout the series, finds it in an abandoned house. Well, abandoned except for a bunch of cats that keep insisting the man stick around until Martin comes. He doesn’t and instead hightails it out of there. It’s a lackluster story that fails to utilize the potential creepiness that cats can offer. |
| 27. | The Ghost with the Bloody Fingers | No this is not about finger-banging on your period, which is only scary if you’ve never done it before. It is instead very predictably about a ghost that will not shut up about its bloody fingers. As one of the joke stories, its ending is abysmal and involves a guitar guy (you know, like the one from college) telling the ghost to chill and grab a Band-Aid. Seemingly solid advice, if the dude wasn’t, you know, dead already. |
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