Alvin Schwartz

I. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Schwartz, Alvin. 1984. IN A DARK, DARK ROOM AND OTHER SCARY STORIES. Ill. By Dirk Zimmer. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN: 0060252715

II. PLOT SUMMARY

IN A DARK, DARK ROOM is one of seven short, scary tales retold by Alvin Schwartz in this illustrated book. The first story is called “The Teeth,” and is about a boy who meets men with progressively longer teeth. Each new person he runs into scares him more and more. The next story is titled “In The Graveyard,” and tells the tale of an old woman sitting in a graveyard when three corpses are brought to be buried.

“The Green Ribbon” is another tale retold about a girl with a green ribbon tied around her neck, and at the conclusion of the story we find that the ribbon holds her head on. “The Night it Rained” is a spooky story about a ghost boy borrowing a sweater and returning it to the owner on his grave. “The Pirate” and “The Ghost of John” are also both ghost stories. The title story “In a Dark, Dark Room” is a cumulative story leading to a scary ending.

III.CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Each of the scary stories retold by Alvin Schwartz are excellent to be read aloud by children or to children. As the author recommends in his forward, these stories should be savored and read slowly so that the imagination of those listening is fully keyed in to the story. The stories are both fun and a little scary, though certainly not downright frightening.

The illustrations by Dirk Zimmer are colored drawings depicting the scary scenes of each story. Some illustrations are full page, but most are on half of the page, with text accompanying it in the white space, making reading easy for young children. The illustrations are not integral to the story line, and the stories can be enjoyed fully without viewing them. However, the illustrations do provide a visual of the characters involved, which may add to the “scary-ness” of the stories. Many times, the illustrations are scarier than the story.

At the conclusion of the book, Schwartz provides the sources for each of the folk tales he retells. He does an excellent job of making these stories fun and accessible to beginning readers, as the text is easy to read.

IV. REVIEW EXCERPTS

An ALA Notable Children’s Book

“The pacing makes at once for comfortable and dramatic reading; the pictures are a ghastly, gloomy, wickedly funny lot. And Schwartz doesn't spoil these stories for later, expanded acquaintance--there's gravity as well as, snap in the telling. Once again, a standout job.” --Kirkus

V. CONNECTIONS

• Make masks with longer and longer teeth, and act out the story of “The Teeth”
• Have children make their own cumulative tale similar to “In the Dark, Dark Room.” Decide on a description, for example: “In the loud, loud forest.”