Alvin Schwartz Books In Order

Publication Order of Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark Books

Publication Order of And Other Noodle Tales Books

Publication Order of Alvin Schwartz Picture Book Books

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Alvin Schwartz
Author Alvin Schwartz was the writer of over fifty books that were dedicated to and dealt with topics like word play and folklore, and many of them were intended for younger readers.

Schwartz was born in Brooklyn, New York on April 25, 1927, and was the son of Harry (a taxi driver) and Gussie Schwartz.

Alvin first became interested in folklore during his childhood, but didn’t think of it as something he could study. It was just something that was part of his childhood: the rhymes and riddles, games, scary stories, and superstitions.

After spending time in the navy, he became interested in writing. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from Colby College and his master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.

From 1951 until 1955, Alvin reported for The Binghamton Press. During his professional writing career his work was published by various firms, including Bantam Books, HarperCollins, Lippincott, and Farrar Strauss.

In the year 1963, Alvin quit his steady job to become a full-time freelance writer. He began by converting the shed in his backyard into his office. In the beginning, he wrote about the serious social issues: the decay of inner cities, the labor movement, and bridging the gap between each of the generations. However most of his better known works is definitely not that serious.

When the grant money dried up for these sorts of books, he chose to become a re-teller and collector of folklore for kids, sometimes heading out to libraries to look things up in some old books. Sometimes even getting his jokes and stories from the kids in the neighborhood. Some of the folklore that he collected was scary while some was more funny.

While writing the books, which he felt was a very important part of the process, he would say everything out loud three or four times in his bathroom, since the acoustics are so good. He listened to the way things link up and work with each other, so he’d lock himself in the bathroom and read his book aloud and circle things that weren’t working in terms of sounds. Since his stories were meant to be read out loud, the sounds are important.

He wrote a series of books on folklore for kids which were illustrated by Glen Rounds and each one featured a sort of folklore. One featured wordplay, another smart aleck jokes and riddles, while a different one was about superstitions.

He is best known for writing the “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” that featured nightmarish and gruesome illustrations done by Stephen Gammell. It was America’s most frequently challenge book (or book series) for library inclusion of the nineties.

For the “Scary Stories” series, he drew heavily from urban legends and folklore as the topic of his stories. He researched extensively and spent over a year actually writing each one of the books.

His influences for the books include Mark Twain, Jan Harold Brunvand, T.S. Eliot, Bennett Cerf, Shakespeare, and Joel Chandler Harris.

These books had sold more than seven million copies by the year 2017, and appeared on numerous children’s bestseller lists. They’ve been collectively hailed as a cultural touchstone for an entire generation. And in the year 2019, the series was adapted into a movie which was written by the Hageman Brothers and was directed by Andre Ovredal and starred Zoe Colletti, Austin Zajur, Michael Garza, and Natalie Ganzhorn.

In the year 1982, “The Cat’s Elbow and Other Secret Languages” was an ALA Notable Book.

He died in Princeton, New Jersey of lymphoma on March 14, 1992, only six weeks before his 65th birthday. He was survived by his four kids and wife.

“Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” is the first collection in the “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” series and was released in the year 1981. This rather spooky addition to Alvin’s popular books on American folklore is filled to the brim with stories of dark revenge and spooky horror which are sure to make you jump with fright.

There’s a story here for everybody: a ghost that takes revenge on her killer, skeletons with tangled and torn flesh that roams the earth, and a haunted house where every night some bloody head comes down the chimney.

Stephen’s creepy drawings perfectly capture the mood of over two dozen scary tales, and even some scary songs. All of which are just right for reading alone or telling aloud in the dark. If you dare!

It is clear that Alvin knows his stuff, and it is obvious he did extensive research on folklore for this book and that he knew his stuff about the subject matter. These are great stories for kids to enjoy and turn around and introduce them to their kids and others later on. Alvin delivers a wonderful little collection of stories which are chilling and some are, at times, quite funny.

“More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” is the second collection in the “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” series and was released in the year 1984. For everybody that enjoyed the first volume are going to find a satisfyingly spooky sequel in this new collection of the fantastic, the macabre, and the funny. Could it really be possible to die and just not know it? What happens to a murderer whose victim comes back from the grave, or to a thief that is foolish enough to rob a corpse? What if a person gets buried too soon?

Read about each of these horrifying predicaments along with what happens when some practical jokes produce some gruesome consequences and other initiations go wrong.

“More Tales to Chill Your Bones” is the third collection in the “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” series and was released in the year 1991. This one joins his other popular collections of scary folklore to deliver to readers funny, spooky, and fantastic stories that are guaranteed to raise some goosebumps.

Why would a hearse be filled up with men with yellow glowing eyes? Who is the Wolf girl? How does somebody avoid an appointment with Death? Can a nightmare actually become reality?