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Some very scary, some quite mild, some really gross.  All easy-to-tell. Includes: "Little Buttercup" (Norway); "Wee Little Tyke" (England); "Looking for Home" (England); "Wicked John and the Devil"(Appalachian); "The Great Red Cat"(Scotland); "The Wizard Clip" (West Virginia); "The Tinker and the Ghost"(Spain); "The Conjure Wives"(Appalachia); "Sop Doll"(Appalachia); "The Hobyahs" (Australia); "Old Ben" (Appalachia); "Sam'l" (England); "Cat with the Beckoning Paw"(Japan); "Totanguak"(Eskimo); "Red Silk Handkerchief" (England); "Strange Visitor"(England);  "Who Lives in the Skull?" (Russia);  "Let's Go on a Ghost Hunt" (American); "Tale of a Black Cat" (American); "Witches' Brew" (US).

When The Lights Go Out: Twenty Scary Tales To Tell

Author:

Illustrator:

Margaret Read MacDonald

Roxane Murphy

Some very scary, some quite mild, some really gross. All easy-to-tell. Includes: "Little Buttercup" (Norway); "Wee Little Tyke" (England); "Looking for Home" (England); "Wicked John and the Devil"(Appalachian); "The Great Red Cat"(Scotland); "The Wizard Clip" (West Virginia); "The Tinker and the Ghost"(Spain); "The Conjure Wives"(Appalachia); "Sop Doll"(Appalachia); "The Hobyahs" (Australia); "Old Ben" (Appalachia); "Sam'l" (England); "Cat with the Beckoning Paw"(Japan); "Totanguak"(Eskimo); "Red Silk Handkerchief" (England); "Strange Visitor"(England); "Who Lives in the Skull?" (Russia); "Let's Go on a Ghost Hunt" (American); "Tale of a Black Cat" (American); "Witches' Brew" (US).

Categories

Storytelling: Folktale Collections

Folktale Collections

Holidays

Editions

Paperback

2004

Tokyo: Amu Shobu, Publisher Inc.

Hardcover

1988

H. W. Wilson Company

176 pp

0-8242-0770-X

Paperback

1988

H. W. Wilson Company

176 pp

0-8242-0823-4

Quotes

Children will find these stories easy to learn and read aloud. I predict that those alleged non-readers will read these with relish

Emergency Librarian

20 entertaining folktales that will absorb and chill primary and preschool audiences. ...Selections will be especially useful around Haloween though...it can be used year round.

Booklist, Oct 1, 1988

May help beginning tellers find the confidence to get started.

School Library Journa, August 1989

Awards

Children's Catalog 19th ed.

Children's Core Collection, 2014, 21st ed.

Mouse illustration by Julie Paschkis

© 2025 Margaret Read MacDonald

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