Short Story Anthologies for Kids

These are the kind of stories we all remember reading on gray afternoons, wearing sweatpants and sprawled on the floor, after having complained to Mom several bajillion times that we were bored. To which she invariably replied, "Go read a book. I'm busy." Why we always went to the old anthologies, typically from the 1950s and with covers as cracked and gray as the weather outside, was a mystery, because they never seemed appealing.

Until we started reading the stories inside. It was better than TV—tales of reckless Greek heroes, real-life Arctic explorers, animals who could talk and wear clothes (this never bothered us until we got older), foreign lands, horse races, etc., etc., etc. Okay, so maybe the pictures were a little hokey, and maybe all the facts weren't perfectly accurate, but these were good stories.

Keeping such vessels of imagination from our own children is little short of criminal. They need a place to forage their young minds, to stoke the fires of make-believe and ambition, and what better place than the pages of a short story anthology? Surely Sesame Street or Dora the Explorer won't have the same effect; no, lead kids to the source as a place of delight and awe, and they'll eat the fruit and drink the water because they want to.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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Short Story Anthologies for Kids
111 Items found Print
"Why" Stories
by Edward W. Dolch & Marguerite P. Dolch
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 2nd-4th grade
in Vintage Readers & Textbooks (Location: VIN-READ)
Alfred Hitchcock's Haunted Houseful
by Alfred Hitchcock, illustrated by Fred Banbery
from Random House
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Alfred Hitchcock's Sinister Spies
by Alfred Hitchcock (editor); illustrated by Paul Spina
from Random House
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
American Fairy Tales
1st edition from Hyperion Books for Children
for 3rd-Adult
American Folklore and Legend
by Robert Dolezal
from Reader's Digest
for 3rd-6th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
American Tall Tales
by Adrien Stoutenberg
from Puffin Books
for 3rd-6th grade
$6.99
Animal Stories
by Edited by Walter de la Mare
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 3rd-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Anthology of Children's Literature
by Edna Johnson, Evelyn R. Sickels, and Frances Clarke Sayers (editors), illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg & N. C. Wyeth
4th edition from Houghton Mifflin
for 3rd-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Atlantic Treasury of Childhood Stories
by Mary D. Huchinson Hodgkins (selector and editor), illustrated by Beatrice Stevens
from Atlantic Monthly Press
for 1st-5th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Barefoot Book of Earth Tales
by Dawn Casey, Anne Wilson
from Barefoot Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Beacon First Reader
by James H. Fassett
from Yesterday's Classics
for 1st-2nd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$18.95
Bears, Pirates and Silver Lace
by Anne B. Fisher; illustrated by Phil Nesbitt
from Binford & Mort Publishing
for 2nd-4th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Beat the Story-Drum, Pum-Pum
by Ashley Bryan
from Aladdin Paperbacks
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 3rd-7th grade
$9.99 $5.50 (5 in stock)
Beautiful Blue Jay and Other Tales of India
by John W. Spellman, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
1st edition from Little, Brown & Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Big Book for Peace
by Lloyd Alexander, et. al
1st edition from Dutton Children's Books
for 1st-3rd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Book of Dragons
by Michael Hague
1st edition from HarperCollins
for 3rd-7th grade
in Dragons & Mythical Beasts (Location: FIC-DRAG)
Book of Virtues
by William J. Bennett
from Simon and Schuster
for 4th-9th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Buddha Stories
by Demi
1st edition from Henry Holt and Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Celtic Fairy Tales
by Neil Philip, illustrated by Isabelle Brent
from Viking Press
for 3rd-8th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$12.00 (2 in stock)
Child's Book of Country Stories
by Ada M. Skinner and Eleanor L. Skinner, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
from Dilithium Press, Ltd.
for 1st-4th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Child's Book of Grace
from Parragon Publishing
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Children's Book of Faith
by William J. Bennett
from Random House
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Children's Book of Heroes
by William J. Bennett
from Random House
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Children's Book of Home and Family
by William J. Bennett
from Scholastic Inc.
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Children's Book of Virtues
by William J. Bennett
from Simon and Schuster
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Chronicles of Harris Burdick
by Chris Van Allsburg
1st edition from Houghton Mifflin
for 5th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$19.99
Classic Myths to Read Aloud
by William F. Russell
from Three Rivers Press
in Reading Aloud & Story-telling (Location: LIR-RAST)
$16.00
Classics to Read Aloud to Your Children
by William Russell
from Three Rivers Press
for Kindergarten-8th grade
in Reading Aloud & Story-telling (Location: LIR-RAST)
Courage to Adventure
by Child Study Association of America (editors), illustrated by Reisie Lonette
from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Cow-Tail Switch
by Harold Courlander, George Herzog
Reissue from Square Fish Publishing
for 5th-7th grade
1948 Newbery Honor Book
$17.99 $6.00 (1 in stock)
Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural
by Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Brian Pinkney
from Yearling
for 4th-7th grade
1993 Newbery Honor Book
$7.99
Dog of Flanders and Other Stories
by Louise De La Ramee
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI)
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
Calla Editions
by Kay Nielsen
from Dover Publications
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
English Fairy Tales
by Joseph Jacobs
from Everyman's Library
for 3rd-6th grade
$21.00
Family Treasury of Children's Stories #3
by Pauline Rush Evans
from Doubleday & Company
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Vintage Anthology Collections (Location: VIN-ANTH)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Favorite Celtic Fairy Tales
by Joseph Jacobs
from Dover Publications
for 3rd-4th grade
Favorite Folktales from Around the World
by Jane Yolen
from Pantheon Books
for 4th-Adult
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters
by Kathleen Ragan, Foreword by Jane Yolen
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 5th-Adult
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$16.95
Fifty Famous People
by James Baldwin
from Yesterday's Classics
for 1st-4th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$11.95
Fifty Famous Stories Retold
by James Baldwin
from Yesterday's Classics
for 1st-4th grade
$11.95
Fifty Famous Stories Retold
by James Baldwin
from Living Book Press
for 1st-4th grade
$8.99
Firebird and Other Russian Fairy Tales
by Jacqueline Onassis, illustrated by Boris Zvorykin
from Viking Press
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
For the Children's Hour
by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, Clara M. Lewis
from Yesterday's Classics
for Nursery-1st grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$18.95
Gold Thread and Other Stories of Young Faith
by Norman Maclead
from Whole Heart Ministries
for 3rd-6th grade
in Morality Tales (Location: FIC-WH05)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Golden Christmas Treasury
by Rick Bunsen (editor)
from Golden Books
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Christmas & Advent (Location: HOLIDAY)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Golden Prize and Other Stories About Horses
by Mel Crawford, illustrator
from Whitman Publishing Company
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage Anthology Collections (Location: VIN-ANTH)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Green Willow and Other Japanese Fairy Tales
Calla Editions
by Grace James
from Dover Publications
for 7th-10th grade
Hidden Tales from Eastern Europe
by Antonia Barber
from Frances Lincoln
for Preschool-3rd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Illustrated Treasury of Humor for Children
by Judith Hendra, editor; introduction by William Cole
from Grosset & Dunlap
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Illustrated Treasury of Modern Literature for Children
from Exeter Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Kaleidoscope of Fairies & Fables
by Hans Andersen, Aesop, Kipling & the Brothers Grimm, retold by Robert Mathias
from Hamlyn
for Kindergarten-4th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Kindergarten Gems
by Agnes Taylor Ketchum, Ida M. Jorgensen
from Yesterday's Classics
for Preschool-1st grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$15.95
Kingfisher Book of Classic Boy Stories
by Michael Morpurgo, editor
1st edition from Kingfisher
in Picture Book Treasuries (Location: PIC-TRE)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Kingfisher Treasury of Stories from Around the World
by Linda Jennings
from Kingfisher
for 3rd-5th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Laugh Book
by Compiled by Joanna Cole and Stephanie Calmenson, Illustrated by Marilyn Hafner
from Doubleday & Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Humor & Comedy (Location: FIC-COM)
Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book
by Bob Hartman, Krisztina Kallai Nagy
from Lion Publishing
for Nursery-1st grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book
from Lion Hudson
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Little Child's Book of Stories
by Ada M. Skinner & Eleanor L. Skinner, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
from Dilithium Press, Ltd.
for Preschool-3rd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Moral Compass
by William J. Bennett
1st edition from Simon and Schuster
for 4th-6th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
More Stories to Remember Volume 1
by Thomas B. Costain & John Beecroft
from Doubleday & Company
for 6th-12th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
My Book House #02: Story Time
by Olive Beaupre Miller
from Dover Publications
for 2nd-6th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
My Storytime Treasury
from Houghton Mifflin
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
New World Echoes
Copper Lodge Library
by Compiled and Edited by Jennifer Courtney
from Classical Conversations
for 1st-6th grade
in Classical Conversations (Location: CUR-CC)
$14.95 $10.50 (2 in stock)
Old-Fashioned Children's Storybook
from Simon and Schuster
for Nursery-1st grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Open the Doors
by Margery Fisher (collected and arranged by)
First American Edition from World Publishing Company
for 2nd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Oscar Wilde Stories for Children
by Oscar Wilde, illustrated by PJ Lynch
from Hodder Children's
for 4th-8th grade
Over the Hills and Far Away
by Elizabeth Hammill
from Candlewick Press
for Nursery-1st grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Paul Buyan
by Esther Shephard
Reissue from Odyssey Press
for 3rd-7th grade
Pigtail of Ah Lee Ben Loo
by John Bennett
from Longmans, Green & Co.
for 3rd-8th grade
1929 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Platt & Munk Treasury of Stories for Children
by Nancy Christensen Hall, editor
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 1st-3rd grade
in Picture Book Treasuries (Location: PIC-TRE)
Random House Book of Sports Stories
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Read-To-Me Storybook
by Lois Lenski, Illustrator
from HarperCollins
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Reading-Literature First Reader
by Harriette Taylor Treadwell, Margaret Free
from Yesterday's Classics
for 1st-2nd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$10.95
Reading-Literature Second Reader
by Harriette Taylor Treadwell, Margaret Free
from Yesterday's Classics
for 1st-2nd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$11.95 $6.50 (1 in stock)
Stories from Around the World
by Heather Amery
from Usborne
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Stories From France
Folklore of the World
by Edward W. Dolch
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 2nd-4th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Stories from Hawaii
Folklore of the World
by Edward W. Dolch, Marguerite P. Dolch, & Ted Schroeder (Illustrator)
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 1st-3rd grade
in Vintage Anthology Collections (Location: VIN-ANTH)
Stories from India
Folklore of the World
by Edward W. Dolch, Marguerite P. Dolch, & Gordon Laite (Illustrator)
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 1st-3rd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Stories from Old China
Folklore of the World
by Edward W. Dolch, Marguerite P. Dolch, & Seong Moy (Illustrator
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 1st-3rd grade
in Vintage Anthology Collections (Location: VIN-ANTH)
Stories of Wizards
by Gillian Doherty, illustrated by Linda Edwards
from Usborne
for 3rd-6th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Stories to Remember Volume 1
by Thomas Costain & John Beecroft
from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 10th grade - Adult
in Short Stories (Location: LIT-ANTH)
$6.00 (2 in stock)
Stories to Solve
by George Shannon
1st edition from Greenwillow Books
for 5th-7th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Sun, Moon, and Stars
by Mary Hoffman
from Dutton Children's Books
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Sweet and Sour
from HMH Books for Young Readers
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$8.95 $6.00 (2 in stock)
Tale of the Cid: and Other Stories of Knights and Chivalry
by Andrew Lang
from Dover Publications
for 6th-Adult
$9.95
Tales from Japan
by Helen & William McAlpine
from Oxford University
for 4th-6th grade
Tales from Silver Lands
by Charles J. Finger
from Dover Publications
for 4th-8th grade
1925 Newbery Medal winner
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$12.99
Tales from Silver Lands
by Charles J. Finger
1971 printing from Doubleday & Company
for 4th-8th grade
1925 Newbery Medal winner
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$10.00 (2 in stock)
Tales Told Again
by Walter De La Mare
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-8th grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
Tenggren's Golden Tales from the Arabian Nights
by Gustaf Tenggren
from Golden Books
for 1st-6th grade
Thirty More Famous Stories Retold
by James Baldwin
from Yesterday's Classics
for 2nd-5th grade
$12.95
Thirty More Famous Stories Retold
by James Baldwin
from Living Book Press
for 2nd-5th grade
$9.99
Treasury of Children's Literature
by Armand Eisen
for Preschool-3rd grade
in Short Story Anthologies for Kids (Location: FIC-ANTH)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Twenty-Two Russian Tales for Young Children
by Leo Tolstoy, selected, translated, and with an afterword by Miriam Morton, illustrated by Eros Keith
from Simon and Schuster
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Two Ways to Count to Ten
by Ruby Dee
Reprint from Square Fish Publishing
for Preschool-1st grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Two Ways to Count to Ten
by Ruby Dee
Reprint from Square Fish Publishing
for Preschool-1st grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories - Volume 2
by Arthur Stanley Maxwell
from Pacific Press
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Uncle Arthur's Stories (Location: FIC-WH07)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories - Volume 3
by Arthur Stanley Maxwell
from Pacific Press
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Uncle Arthur's Stories (Location: FIC-WH07)
Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories - Volume 5
by Arthur Stanley Maxwell
from Review and Herald Publishing Association
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Uncle Arthur's Stories (Location: FIC-WH07)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories First Series Volumes 1-4
by Arthur S. Maxwell
from Review and Herald Publishing Association
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Uncle Arthur's Stories (Location: FIC-WH07)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
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