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The Skull Talks Back: And Other Haunting Tales
Do you dare
to cross paths with ... An enchantress who can slip
in and out of her skin,
A man more evil than the devil,
A skull who talks back,
A pair of creepy feet that can
walk on their own? Spooky, chilling, and fantastical, this collection of six scary tales will send shivers up your spine! The stories in the skull talks back have been selected from Every Tongue Got To Confess , Zora Neale Hurston's third volume of folklore. Through Joyce Carol Thomas's carefully adapted text and Leonard Jenkins's arresting illustrations, the soulful, fanciful imaginations of ordinary folk will reach readers of all ages.
to cross paths with ... An enchantress who can slip
in and out of her skin,
A man more evil than the devil,
A skull who talks back,
A pair of creepy feet that can
walk on their own? Spooky, chilling, and fantastical, this collection of six scary tales will send shivers up your spine! The stories in the skull talks back have been selected from Every Tongue Got To Confess , Zora Neale Hurston's third volume of folklore. Through Joyce Carol Thomas's carefully adapted text and Leonard Jenkins's arresting illustrations, the soulful, fanciful imaginations of ordinary folk will reach readers of all ages.
56 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2004
268 people want to read
About the author
Zora Neale Hurston
184 books5,497 followersNovels, including
Their Eyes Were Watching God
(1937), and nonfiction writings of American folklorist Zora Neale Hurston give detailed accounts of African American life in the South.
In 1925, Hurston, one of the leaders of the literary renaissance, happening in Harlem, produced the short-lived literary magazine Fire!! alongside Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman shortly before she entered Barnard College. This literary movement developed into the Harlem renaissance.
Hurston applied her Barnard ethnographic training to document African American folklore in her critically acclaimed book Mules and Men alongside fiction Their Eyes Were Watching God . She also assembled a folk-based performance dance group that recreated her Southern tableau with one performance on Broadway.
People awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to Hurston to travel to Haiti and conduct research on conjure in 1937. Her significant work ably broke into the secret societies and exposed their use of drugs to create the Vodun trance, also a subject of study for fellow dancer-anthropologist Katherine Dunham, then at the University of Chicago.
In 1954, the Pittsburgh Courier assigned Hurston, unable to sell her fiction, to cover the small-town murder trial of Ruby McCollum, the prosperous black wife of the local lottery racketeer, who had killed a racist white doctor. Hurston also contributed to Woman in the Suwanee County Jail , a book by journalist and civil rights advocate William Bradford Huie.
In 1925, Hurston, one of the leaders of the literary renaissance, happening in Harlem, produced the short-lived literary magazine Fire!! alongside Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman shortly before she entered Barnard College. This literary movement developed into the Harlem renaissance.
Hurston applied her Barnard ethnographic training to document African American folklore in her critically acclaimed book Mules and Men alongside fiction Their Eyes Were Watching God . She also assembled a folk-based performance dance group that recreated her Southern tableau with one performance on Broadway.
People awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to Hurston to travel to Haiti and conduct research on conjure in 1937. Her significant work ably broke into the secret societies and exposed their use of drugs to create the Vodun trance, also a subject of study for fellow dancer-anthropologist Katherine Dunham, then at the University of Chicago.
In 1954, the Pittsburgh Courier assigned Hurston, unable to sell her fiction, to cover the small-town murder trial of Ruby McCollum, the prosperous black wife of the local lottery racketeer, who had killed a racist white doctor. Hurston also contributed to Woman in the Suwanee County Jail , a book by journalist and civil rights advocate William Bradford Huie.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 27, 2014
The Skull Talks Back is a collection of short, spooky stories with vibrant illustrations. I thought the book was somewhat creepy but not as horrific as I had hoped. Perfect read for middle schoolers who want a scare that isn't over the top.
June 19, 2020
The Skull Talks Back is a spooky collection of six ghostly folk tales retold by renowned author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. During the 1930s, Hurston studied the folk culture, stories, and songs of Black communities in the American South and the Caribbean. This folk culture is an important component of her most acclaimed novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, in which she captures not just the culture of her hometown of Eatonville, Florida, but also the everyday language of the people in the town.
The Skull Talks Back introduces young readers to this world through scary stories told in vernacular language that combines the supernatural with a humorous edge, and that usually ends up with a character running away in terror. From a rebellious talking mule to a skin-shedding witch, children learn how folk tales are told to remind the listener about the rules of society, and the difference between right and wrong. The evocative illustrations by Leonard Jenkins, cast in dark tones with renderings of skulls, witches, and black cats, add to the uncanny feeling. The Skull Talks Back is a fantastic entry into the world of Zora Neale Hurston, as well as a delightfully scary example of our diverse cultural heritage.
The Skull Talks Back introduces young readers to this world through scary stories told in vernacular language that combines the supernatural with a humorous edge, and that usually ends up with a character running away in terror. From a rebellious talking mule to a skin-shedding witch, children learn how folk tales are told to remind the listener about the rules of society, and the difference between right and wrong. The evocative illustrations by Leonard Jenkins, cast in dark tones with renderings of skulls, witches, and black cats, add to the uncanny feeling. The Skull Talks Back is a fantastic entry into the world of Zora Neale Hurston, as well as a delightfully scary example of our diverse cultural heritage.
April 4, 2021
Inspired by the new picture book Jump at the Sun, I was eager to read some Zora Neale Hurston … but I didn’t want to start where everyone does, with Their Eyes Were Watching God. And what better place to begin than a book of stories for children, right? Because they’ll be short and easily digestible? Except …
I feel like the middle and end were missing from the stories, and, that the pieces that make them folktales, were buried or eliminated. Was the adaptation poorly done? These cannot be Hurston’s words, can they? I’ve heard such gushing over Joyce Carol Thomas’s work and how she is to be credited, with Alice Walker, for bringing Hurston’s work to the world rather than letting in languish in archives. I’m baffled enough that I requested the original book from which these tales were taken, Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Stories from the Gulf States so that I can judge on the original text and collection.
I feel like the middle and end were missing from the stories, and, that the pieces that make them folktales, were buried or eliminated. Was the adaptation poorly done? These cannot be Hurston’s words, can they? I’ve heard such gushing over Joyce Carol Thomas’s work and how she is to be credited, with Alice Walker, for bringing Hurston’s work to the world rather than letting in languish in archives. I’m baffled enough that I requested the original book from which these tales were taken, Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Stories from the Gulf States so that I can judge on the original text and collection.
November 2, 2017
While Zora Neale Hurston's short stories are enjoyable on their own, they are made even more so when you learn a bit about her and her nearly forgotten life and work. These spooky tales are best read at night with a sinister voice.
April 24, 2018
This book is a good introduction for children to ZNH and her work, both as a writer and anthropologist. The stories are creepy and odd, so providing context and history for them might be helpful for younger readers.
November 29, 2009
My, my - Hurston could write the skin off a dog. (I just made that up. Not working, is it?) This is a brief collection of 'haunting' stories, which I interpreted to mean 'stories of hauntings', but 'stories to haunt you' may be more applicable.
I certainly read them as a child, but they are far more effective to me now, as an adult. Her phrases are almost too clean; she seems to trim the fat from the tale so perfectly that the taste is gone. It's not a story anymore.
- That is not an insult. These are cautionary tales, at heart - the sort that you tell children. But they seem to be history. They seem to have happened - if not to the story-teller herself, then to her neighbor or her grandmother; the details were changed in the years from then to now, but the essential terror of wrongness comes through, loud and strong as a heartbeat, and far more powerfully than in any fairy-tale - no matter how Grimm.
This is some scary shit.
I certainly read them as a child, but they are far more effective to me now, as an adult. Her phrases are almost too clean; she seems to trim the fat from the tale so perfectly that the taste is gone. It's not a story anymore.
- That is not an insult. These are cautionary tales, at heart - the sort that you tell children. But they seem to be history. They seem to have happened - if not to the story-teller herself, then to her neighbor or her grandmother; the details were changed in the years from then to now, but the essential terror of wrongness comes through, loud and strong as a heartbeat, and far more powerfully than in any fairy-tale - no matter how Grimm.
This is some scary shit.
March 5, 2014
I enjoyed the immediacy of the tales and the way they captured the voices of the storytellers. The book took me into the roots of horror stories as an oral tradition. It also increased my awareness of and respect for Hurston as a folklorist. She collected these stories and preserved them. As a group, the stories made me think of how skulls, bones, the devil, unusual people and uncanny events are used in narratives -- an inspiring read.
October 29, 2013
This slender volume contains six stories, perfect for Halloween, selected from EVERY TONGUE GOT TO CONFESS, Zora Neale Hurston's third volume of folklore.
Edited by Joyce Carol Oates, with wonderfully spooky illustrations by Leonard Jenkins, the stories capture the soulful and fanciful imaginations of ordinary people.
Though written for children, this book can be enjoyed by readers of all ages.
Edited by Joyce Carol Oates, with wonderfully spooky illustrations by Leonard Jenkins, the stories capture the soulful and fanciful imaginations of ordinary people.
Though written for children, this book can be enjoyed by readers of all ages.
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October 25, 2010Peculiar, short creepy tellable tales of a man who kills the devil and talking skulls and such.
February 24, 2019
Some of these tales were spooky especially " The Skull Talks Back". This was a great read with amazing paintings from the artist.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews