Traditional Literature_In a Dark Dark Room by Dirk Zimmer

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Schwartz, Alvin. 1984. IN A DARK DARK ROOM AND OTHER SCARY SOTRIES. Ill. by Dirk Zimmer. New York, NY: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060252717.

2. PLOT SUMMARY
In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories, contains seven traditional scary stories. Each folktale has a protagonist with approximately two to three additional characters. The setting for each story is familiar to the protagonist and takes place during the dark of the night. In addition, the protagonist in each story confronts his/her fear or exposes a fearful moment.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
By today’s standards of terror and horror, the majority of the stories retold by Alvin Schwartz are mild and tame. Five of the seven stories are light in humor and can be read with friends during a sleepover. I believe children between the ages of eight and ten can deal with the contents and exaggerations in each story. The two stories that held my attention were, “The Green Ribbon” and “The Night It Rained.” Both had events that led to eerie climaxes. The illustrations were also eerie. Zimmer did an outstanding job matching the pictures to the text.

4. REVIEW EXCERPTS
-Harper Collins Publishers: “In a dark, dark room, in a soft, soft voice, tell a scary story—it’s fun! It’s fun to scare your friends with stories about ghosts and pirates, skeletons and strange happenings, especially if they are told by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated with spooky-funny pictures by Dirk Zimmer.”

5. CONNECTIONS
*At the end of the book, the reader is provided with the origins of each story. This made me think of the importance cultural awareness plays when sharing folktales with children.
*Getting fourth grade students to expound on the stories with more details would be an innovative way of getting them excited about writing.