- In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories
- Retold by Alvin Schwartz, Illustrated by Dirk Zimmer
- HarperCollins, $4
Recommended for children as young as 5, this simple collection of seven traditional tales inspires obsessive re-reading. It's spooky enough make your kids shriek with delight.
- Ask the Bones
- Retold by Arielle North Olson and Howard Schwartz
Illustrated by David Linn - Puffin Books, $6
The retellings of international folktales in Ask the Bones are digestible but still contain delicious dark details. The stories were adapted from tales from countries including Russia, Japan, Mexico, and Iceland.
- Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
- By Alvin Schwartz, Illustrated by Stephen Gammell
- HarperCollins, $6
Perhaps the most frightening book in the bunch, this collection is a favorite among middle schoolers. Schwartz's rewritten findings from American folklore are short and definitely haunting.
- Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories
- Roald Dahl
- Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $13
Dahl carefully selected these 14 stories after reading through a staggering 749. While too dense for young readers, this chilling literary anthology will captivate an older child or even her parents.
- The Gashlycrumb Tinies
- by Edward Gorey
- Harcourt Trade, $9
Don't be fooled by the picture-book format; Gorey's witty, sinister ABCs of mortality aren't for young children. You, however, will be charmed by the 26 creative demises and the eerie, strangely endearing line drawings.
