A good short story is a perfect learning tool. As they take less time to read, these are an easy way to introduce your students to new writers and genres. Also, the best short stories are as interesting and meaningful as the best novels. We asked our listeners on Facebook and Instagram to share some of their favorite short stories for high school students. Here’s the big list!
- Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder”
- “The Monsters Are Doing On Maple Street” by Rod Searling
- “Hearts and Hands” by O’Henry
- Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Far Tree”
- Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace”
- Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”
- Frank Stockton’s “Lady or the Tiger”
- Gary Soto’s “Baseball in April”
- Francisco Jimenez’s “The Circuit”
- Wendellin van Drenen’s “Flipped”
- “The Open Window” by H. H. Munro (Saki)
- Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Mask of the Red Death”
- And Henry’s “The Ransom of the Red Chief.”
- “Fixed income” by Sherman Alexi
- Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Wife’s Story”
- “Bleeding on the sidewalk” by Evan Hunter
- Anton Chekhov’s “The Bet”
- Jean Davis Okimoto’s “My Favorite Chapron”
- “The Treasure of Lemon Brown” by Walter Dean Myers
- “Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto
- “Flowers for Algaron” by Daniel Kiss
- “Daily Use” by Alice Walker
- “Lamb for slaughter” by Roald Dahl
- Langston Hughes’ “One Friday Morning”
- “A very old man with huge wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Shirley Jackson’s “Charles”
- Click Neck Guyman’s “Click the Rattlebag”
- Julia Alvarez’s “Name / Name”
- Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”
- Katherine Mansfield’s “The Fly”
- “Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan
- “Liars do not qualify” by Junius Edwards
- Liam O’Flaherty’s “The Sniper”
- “Civil Peace” by Chinua Achebe
- Anne Hart’s “Everything Changed on Friday”
- “The Scholarship Jacket” by Marta Salinas
- “Amigo Brothers” by Pierre Thomas
- Amrita Pritam’s “Wild Flower”
- Luis Erdrich’s “Year of My Birth”
- Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt”
- Isaac Asimov’s “The Fun They Had”
- “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut
- “Hard to Find a Good Man” by Flannery O’Connor
- “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros
- “Thanks, ma’am,” Langston Hughes said.
- “Believing in Brooklyn” by Matt de la Pena
- “Validation” by Sherman Alexi
- “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
- Maya Angelou’s “When I Lay Down”
- Ray Bradbury’s “All Summer in a Day”
- Virginia Driving Hawk Snive’s “The Medicine Bag”
- Gary Paulsen’s “Stop the Sun”
- “Mother and Daughter” by Gary Soto
- “The Tale-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe
- Lucille Fletcher’s “The Hitchhiker”
- Roald Dahl’s “The Landlady”
- “The Smallest Dragonboy” by Ann McCaffrey
- James Hearst’s “The Scarlet Ibis”
- Julia Alvarez’s “My First Free Summer”
- Shirley Jackson’s “Lottery”
- And. Henry’s “The Gift of the Maggie”
- “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan
- Richard Connell’s “Most Dangerous Game”
- “Soul Painting, Inc.” By Meg Medina
- Jacqueline Woodson’s “Main Street” (link to the collection where the story can be found)
- Tony Ked Bambara’s “Raymond’s Run”
- “Moving away from Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin
- “What’s the Worst Thing That Happened” by Bruce Coville
- William Weimark Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Claw”
- Veronica Bird’s “The Bu Hague”
If you’re looking for even shorter stories, check out these recommendations compiled by the Seattle Public Library, Short Story Guide, and Burns & Noble.
Also, we like the collections: A Thousand Beginnings and Ends, compiled by Ellen Oh and LC Chapman from We Need Divers Books, and Meat Cute: Sona Charaipotra, Dhoneel Clayton, Nicola Eun, Ebie Joboi, and others. People are destined to meet.