ESL Reading

Practice reading English with these ESL short stories from American folklore, retold by S.E. Schlosser. Some short stories have an ESL listening component.

Contents ESL Short Stories ESL Listening

The Spooky Series

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ESL Short Stories

• Arkansas Traveler
  A lost traveler tries to find a place to spend the night.

• The Army of the Dead
  The ghosts of the Confederate Army still march through Charleston, South Carolina.

• Bear Lake Monster
  Be careful swimming in Bear Lake! (Utah)

• The Birth of the Jersey Devil
  The origins of the Jersey Devil.

• Brer Rabbit Meets a Tar Baby
  Brer Fox tricks Brer Rabbit into fighting with a Tar Baby.

• Casey Jones
  Death of a dare devil railman. (Tennessee)

• The Christmas Gift
  Why Florida's coast is plagued by hurricanes.

• The Cut-Off
  A riverboat captain is trapped in a cut-off in this Louisiana ghost story.

• The Dance
  A young girl learns that you should never dance with the devil. (Texas)

• Daniel Boone's Dear
  How Daniel Boone met his wife. (North Carolina)

• Davy Crockett and the Frozen Dawn
  Davy Crockett must unfreeze the dawn. (Tennessee)

• The Death Coach

The Death Coach comes for a dying man.
• Eavesdropper
  A Maryland man learns a hard lesson about eavesdropping.

• The First Tears
  An Inuit tale about the origin of tears. (Alaska)

• Ghost Handprints
  Ghosts rescue a car stuck on the railroad tracks.

• The Ghosts of Ringwood Manor
  Do not visit Ringwood Manor after dark!

• John Henry
  Man against machine!

• Johnny Appleseed
  Johnny Appleseed rescues a town during the War of 1812.

• The Maid of the Mist
  The tale of the maiden who lived behind Niagara Falls and the origin of the famous horseshoe falls.
• Milk bottles
  Day after day, a woman comes to the store for milk and leaves without paying.

• Paul Bunyan's Kitchen
  It takes a lot of work to feed Paul Bunyan. (Oregon)

• Pecos Bill and Slue-foot Sue
  Pecos Bill meets the woman of his dreams!

• The White House Ghosts
  Who's haunting the White House?

• Why Dogs Chase Cats
  Its a dog chase cat kind of world. (Virginia)

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ESL: Read and Listen

• Bloody Mary
  The spirit of Bloody Mary returns to claim the lives of those saying her name in front of a darkened mirror.

• The Fifty-cent Piece
  A couple spend a night at a haunted house.

• The Headless Horseman
  A headless Hessian gallops forth from the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, scaring the locals.
• Never Mind Them Watermelons
  Sam Gibb accepts a dare to stay in a haunted house, never expecting to meet a ghost.

• Piece-by-Piece
  A man decides to visit a haunted house against the advice of his friend.

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ESL Listening

NOTE: Text of each story may be found in the the noted book from the Spooky Series by S.E. Schlosser

• The Black Cat's Message
  Mysterious black cats stalk an old man on his way home from work. From Spooky Southwest.
• Tug of War
  A young man plays tug of war with a mischievous ghost haunting his house. From Spooky New York.
• Turnabout is Fair Play
  The ghost of old Uncle Phil turns the tables on a couple of kids who plagued the life out of him -- literally! From Spooky New Jersey.
• Tailypo
  An old hunter finds out the hard way that he should be kind to strange animals!From Spooky South. Pecos Bill and the Haunted House
  Pecos Bill takes on several hundred ghosts in the most haunted house in the West! From Spooky Southwest.