70 Great Short Stories to Teach in Middle School

Teachers

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A good short story is a perfect teaching tool. Because they require less time to read, they are an easy way to expose your students to new authors and genres. Also, the best short stories are every bit as engaging and meaningful as the best novels. We asked our audience on Facebook and Instagram to share some of their favorite short stories for middle schoolers. Here’s the big list!

“A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury
“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” by Rod Serling
“Hearts and Hands” by O. Henry
“The Fir Tree” by Hans Christian Andersen
“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin
“The Lady or the Tiger” by Frank Stockton
“Baseball in April” by Gary Soto
“The Circuit” by Francisco Jiménez
“Flipped” by Wendelin Van Draanen
“The Open Window” by H.H. Munro (Saki)
“The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe
“The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry
“Fixed Income” by Sherman Alexie
“The Wife’s Story” by Ursula K. Le Guin
“On the Sidewalk Bleeding” by Evan Hunter
“The Bet” by Anton Chekhov
“My Favorite Chaperone” by Jean Davies Okimoto
“The Treasure of Lemon Brown” by Walter Dean Myers
“Seventh Grade“ by Gary Soto
“Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes
“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
“Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl
“One Friday Morning” by Langston Hughes
“A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel García Márquez
“Charles” by Shirley Jackson
“Click Clack the Rattlebag” by Neil Gaiman
“Names/Nombres” by Julia Alvarez
“To Build a Fire” by Jack London
“The Fly” by Katherine Mansfield
“Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan
“Liars Don’t Qualify” by Junius Edwards
“The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty
“Civil Peace” by Chinua Achebe
“The Friday Everything Changed” by Anne Hart
“The Scholarship Jacket” by Marta Salinas
“Amigo Brothers” by Piri Thomas
“Wild Flower” by Amrita Pritam
“The Years of My Birth” by Louise Erdrich
“The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury
“The Fun They Had” by Isaac Asimov
“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor
“Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros
“Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes
“Believing in Brooklyn” by Matt de la Peña
“Valediction” by Sherman Alexie
“Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
“When I Lay My Burden Down” by Maya Angelou
“All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury
“The Medicine Bag” by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
“Stop the Sun” by Gary Paulsen
“Mother and Daughter” by Gary Soto
“The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe
“The Hitchhiker” by Lucille Fletcher
“The Landlady” by Roald Dahl
“The Smallest Dragonboy” by Anne McCaffrey
“The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst
“My First Free Summer” by Julia Alvarez
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson
“The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry
“Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan
“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell
“Sol Painting, Inc.” by Meg Medina
“Main Street” by Jacqueline Woodson (link is to collection where story can be found)
“Raymond’s Run” by Toni Cade Bambara
“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin
“What’s the Worst That Could Happen” by Bruce Coville
“The Monkey’s Paw” by William Wymark Jacobs
“The Boo Hag” by Veronica Byrd

If you’re searching for more short stories, check out these recommendations compiled by the Seattle Public Library, the Short Story Guide, and Barnes & Noble.

Plus, we love these anthologies: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings compiled by We Need Diverse Books’s Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman, and Meet Cute: Some People Are Destined to Meet by Sona Charaipotra, Dhonielle Clayton, Nicola Yoon, Ibi Zoboi, et al.