Texas Ghost Stories: Fifty Favorites for the Telling

Storytelling World/Storytelling Magazine Award Winner"I love a book that gives me what it promises, and this one does: fifty real ghost stories, drawn from a variety of sources and told in as many voices, written so as to simulate the language and delivery of a face-to-face performance, and artfully, delightfully done."—Review of Texas Books"Scarcely a page will you turn in this collection of ghost stories in Texas without encountering a disembodied hand or a fang baby—creatures guaranteed to shock the shell of an armadillo. . . . Whether you read the tales out loud or spin them around a campfire, you—and your audience—will be spooked. And you'll never again saunter along a dark, deserted riverbank late at night."—Patti Ross, San Antonio Express-NewsSome humorous, some haunting, and some just late-night terrifying, these stories, gathered by two favorite Texas tellers, span a rich cultural heritage from the earliest Spanish explorers to the present, from La Llorona (the Weeping Woman) to the vanishing hitchhiker. Introduced by John O. West and John L. Davis, two of Texas’ most respected folklorists, the stories include tales adapted by European settlers to their new southwestern settings, more historically rooted legends about such early pioneers as Britt Bailey of the Gulf Coast prairie and Josiah Wilbarger of Austin, and those notorious contemporary cautionary tales known as urban legends.With two appendixes addressing selection, learning, and telling of stories as well as sources and scholarship, Texas Ghost Stories is a full-service compendium for tellers, teachers, readers, and collectors. Celebrating both the blending and the diversity of Texan cultures through the timeless stories we love to be scared by, it is a treasury for all Texans and for those who really want to know us.

Literature & Fiction

Tingle, Tim

Moore, Doc

Contemporary

Texas Tech University Press

Storytelling World/Storytelling Magazine Award Winner "I love a book that gives me what it promises, and this one does: fifty real ghost stories, drawn from a variety of sources and told in as many voices, written so as to simulate the language and delivery of a face-to-face performance, and artfully, delightfully done."―Review of Texas Books "Scarcely a page will you turn in this collection of ghost stories in Texas without encountering a disembodied hand or a fang baby―creatures guaranteed to shock the shell of an armadillo. . . . Whether you read the tales out loud or spin them around a campfire, you―and your audience―will be spooked. And you'll never again saunter along a dark, deserted riverbank late at night."―Patti Ross, San Antonio Express-News Some humorous, some haunting, and some just late-night terrifying, these stories, gathered by two favorite Texas tellers, span a rich cultural heritage from the earliest Spanish explorers to the present, from La Llorona (the Weeping Woman) to the vanishing hitchhiker. Introduced by John O. West and John L. Davis, two of Texas’ most respected folklorists, the stories include tales adapted by European settlers to their new southwestern settings, more historically rooted legends about such early pioneers as Britt Bailey of the Gulf Coast prairie and Josiah Wilbarger of Austin, and those notorious contemporary cautionary tales known as urban legends. With two appendixes addressing selection, learning, and telling of stories as well as sources and scholarship, Texas Ghost Stories is a full-service compendium for tellers, teachers, readers, and collectors. Celebrating both the blending and the diversity of Texan cultures through the timeless stories we love to be scared by, it is a treasury for all Texans and for those who really want to know us.

A beady-eyed varmint crawls through the floor of a lonely old man’s cabin. A boy spends the night in a haunted house, complete with a grinning skeleton in the chimney. A girl foolishly taunts a giant owl-woman. A young man’s prom date has a spooky secret. The Hairy Man will catch you—unless you can fool him three times. Graveyard ghosts and creatures from swamps and riverbanks slink through ten creepy tales presented by master storytellers Tim Tingle and Doc Moore. Guaranteed to send shivers down the spines of younger readers, each of these stories comes with its own eerie illustrations. Some humorous, some haunting, these tales guarantee thrills and chills for youngsters from any state.

Spooky Texas Tales

Children's Books

Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths

The fearsome Chupacabra stalks the desert valley, while a grandson wanders far from the ranch. The woman who’s just moved to the neighborhood wears strange sunglasses after dark. What could be behind them? A man picks up a hitchhiker—only to discover that his passenger is not human. Kids of all ages will find chills and thrills in these tales of the weird, the macabre, and the mysterious, all collected from the lore and legends of the Lone Star State. In addition to “Skinwalker,” the authors’ most requested school concert story, this new volume adds spine-tingling twists on the account of La Llorona, the weeping woman, said to be the world’s best-known ghost; the classic tale “The Money’s Paw”; the story of “The Screaming Banshee Cattle of the Night Swamp,” and seven others. Told with humor and lively modern-day detail, these renderings by veteran storytellers not only please and entertain but preserve a wealth of folklore from a culturally diverse region of the country.

More Spooky Texas Tales

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Moore, Doc. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Moore, Doc

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Moore, Doc. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Texas Ghost Stories: Fifty Favorites for the Telling

Texas Ghost Stories: Fifty Favorites for the Telling

Spooky Texas Tales

More Spooky Texas Tales