does anyone remember these books. i remember everyone reading these in 3rd grade. was tlaking about these with a friend of mine the other day. stuff's straight outa yer nightmares!the art inparticularly was just savage.










http://www.scribd.com/doc/3027880/Alvin-Schwartz-Scary-Stories-to-Tell-in-the-Dark

My husband loved those books as a kid--turns out they recently put all of those stories into a couple collective books; he was so excited to read them again:

Scary Stories Boxed Set

aw awesome! im gonna have to hunt those down! thanks last call!

Omg! Those books used to scare the crap out of me when I was in 2nd-3rd grade xD. My teacher used to get one of the student's dads to come in every week to read a story out of those books. I remember this one story out of it that was pretty graphic, I still remember it. The one with the pool monster. It like snapped someone's bones up and plucked their eyeballs out x.x. How are these books for kids anyway :p?

Hahah that's so great! I was just talking about these the other day too. I only have the third one so all those stories are fresh in my mind.

Been meaning to get the others. Thanks for the link lastcall.

The art was what made those books for me. I've been wanting to check out some other stuff by the artist.

Supposedly they were banned in some places. I remember seeing it on a banned list thinking "I love those books"! But a few of the stories are also kind of silly that only kids could enjoy. It's a weird mix of brutal and silly. Fun all around!

Where were these books when I was a kid? We had the really lame stuff.

elektro
Where were these books when I was a kid? We had the really lame stuff.

They've been around since the early 80s, you just missed them somehow. :]

I never thought the stories were too scary, but the pictures were definitely nightmare inducing. I bought the collected hardback 5 or 6 years ago, but it's sitting in a box in a garage in America and I'm over here in England. :[

I used to enjoy the books as a kid. The stories were more entertaining than scary, but boy, that art! That second picture in the original post gave me nightmares. I used to go to sleep at night worrying that I'd wake up to see that dead eyeless woman staring at me.

Hawk
I used to go to sleep at night worrying that I'd wake up to see that dead eyeless woman staring at me.

don't worry, she wouldn't have been able to see you :)

...We never had anything so interesting to read.

the art's definatly what did it for me too. the stories were fun and a few were real creepy. but the art just sticks the stake in ya.whenever i get a really big zit on my cheek, i stillt hink of that pictur eof that girl that had the spider eggs in her face.

I loved those when I was a kid! Our school tried to ban them! I still remember some of the stories and images without havin' looked at that stuff for 10 or 12 years. The spider bite lady was one, so was the sewer rat chihuahua. I need to see if I can find 'em in storage next time I visit my folks.

All I had was Are You Afraid of the Dark? Classic.

Looooved these books! I scoured every inch of every library for books like these, and this series was tops for me thanks to the illustrations. I can certainly say these books are what started me on drawing creepy creatures at a young age!I bought the box set last year and was like a kid at Christmas showing the pictures to my husband. It makes me wonder how creepy "Where the Buffalo begin" looks with his art style? I'll have to look for that next time I go to the bookstore...

I really loved the tragic irony of "The Bed by the Window", but the one that freaked me out when I was little was the one with the scarecrow, "Harold". For some reason, the one where the husband comes back from the dead to make sure his widow doesn't remarry always made me laugh!

I was always easily scared as a kid, and I remember reading these things and covering up the pictures with my hand while I read... then I'd get stupidly paranoid and cover it up with a sheet of paper, because I was honestly afraid to touch it. Good times.

The stories... I guess they were scary. Scarier than Goosebumps, at least.

Oh God, I loved these as a kid. Back when I was in elementary school, they sold at least one or two collections of these every time we had a book fair. The stories never really scared me that much (in fact even back then I found some of them to be kind of ridiculous), but yeah, that artwork just creeped the hell out of me when I was young.

Only stories that ever actually scared me as a kid. Until I read Cujo, that is.

Any of you ever get into the goosebumps collection?

I liked the choose your own ending over the regular format.

This takes me back, when I was 8 these were my favorite books! The stories were OK, the illustrations though-- those totally freaked me out. I remember seeing (I think) the first book that had a monstrous corpse-like head coming out of the ground and I thought it was so unreal and scary-looking that I had to get the book from the library. I guess I always had somewhat macabre sensibilities.

PIT_FACE
the art's definatly what did it for me too. the stories were fun and a few were real creepy. but the art just sticks the stake in ya.whenever i get a really big zit on my cheek, i stillt hink of that pictur eof that girl that had the spider eggs in her face.

I don't remember reading these books at all but "spider eggs girl" I must have seen because I can picture it right now and am as disturbed as whenever it was I saw it. Yech.

parkbenchbook
I don't remember reading these books at all but "spider eggs girl" I must have seen because I can picture it right now and am as disturbed as whenever it was I saw it. Yech.

Ohh, trust me if you saw that image you'd remember it!

Decaying fetus in the sky with strings was another WTF illustration from those books:

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/407/sc9pi8.jpg [img443.imageshack.us]

haha.i remember that one too. the thing was the story for that one was actually kinda funny.

which was the one about the monster or something that skinned people alive? The whole skinning part scared the crap outa me!

Jonko, are you mayhaps thinking of the scarecrow one? 'Cuz that one ends with the farmers abandoning their farm to "Harold", but then flipping coins to see who goes back for their expensive milking stools. When the other farmer crests the hill, he looks back and sees Harold on the roof stretching out a "bloody skin to dry in the sun" (that part gave me the creeps too!)

Amelius
Jonko, are you mayhaps thinking of the scarecrow one? 'Cuz that one ends with the farmers abandoning their farm to "Harold", but then flipping coins to see who goes back for their expensive milking stools. When the other farmer crests the hill, he looks back and sees Harold on the roof stretching out a "bloody skin to dry in the sun" (that part gave me the creeps too!)

That's totally it!!! I remembered there were two characters! That stuff is definitely not for kids... I mean, they're rating Harry Potter books nowadays, and these were far more descriptively violent than harry will ever be!

skoolmunkee
Decaying fetus in the sky with strings was another WTF illustration from those books:

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/407/sc9pi8.jpg [img443.imageshack.us]

Wasn't that the one that dragged the Indian guy along the ground and shredded his feet off or something?

Sea_Cow

skoolmunkee
Decaying fetus in the sky with strings was another WTF illustration from those books:

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/407/sc9pi8.jpg [img443.imageshack.us]

Wasn't that the one that dragged the Indian guy along the ground and shredded his feet off or something?

That's "The Wendigo" (accompanying illustration is footprints in the snow that end abruptly) but the picture that skoolmunkee has linked is from the more lighthearted story called "Is Something Wrong?" The book had different sections of story types: Creepy tales, creepy songs, jump stories, and funny stories at the end to lighten the mood.
Of course, I'm cheating because I have all 3 books sitting right here ^_^ (But I do know what story goes with what picture without looking, it's the titles that escape me most!)

man, the more you guys talk about,the more keeps comming back to you. nastolgia up the aces!

I recognized the first picture as Harold before I even scrolled down.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go dig up my R.L. Stine books, and be disappointed with how unscary they now are.

Amelius
lighthearted story called "Is Something Wrong?" The book had different sections of story types: Creepy tales, creepy songs, jump stories, and funny stories at the end to lighten the mood.
Of course, I'm cheating because I have all 3 books sitting right here ^_^ (But I do know what story goes with what picture without looking, it's the titles that escape me most!)

Is the death song in there? The one that goes

Did you ever think when the herse goes by
That you may be the next to die?

I used to love singing that song! Especially the part about the worms!