Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.   SUBSCRIBE
The Kid Should See This

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a haunting tale told with shadow puppets

Watch more with these video collections:

On the Hudson River in the Hudson Valley, the village of Tarrytown “abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions.” Its most famous spirit, “the apparition of a figure on horseback without a head,” comes to life just north of its border each Halloween, made real by an 1819 story written by author Washington Irving: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

What happened to Ichabod Crane, the greedy, vain, and superstitious schoolmaster who vanished one fateful eve?

Ichabod leaves the party
This classic American ghost story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, is told with shadow puppets in the artful Historic Hudson Valley short film above. It was created by puppeteer and children’s author and illustrator David Hyde Costello. Malik Work narrates.

ancient stories
Then go behind the scenes with Costello as he shares how some of the film’s scenes were made:



Watch these handpicked videos next on TKSST:
• The Skeleton Dance, a 1929 Silly Symphony
• Animating a Jack-o-Lantern, from cute to chilling
The Dark Art of Shadow Puppetry
Whale Fall (After Life of a Whale)
Animated Life: Seeing the Invisible
Flower Dance (ផ្ការាំ), the Cambodian folk song animated
• The Story Of King Midas, a stop-motion classic by Ray Harryhausen (1953)

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

🌈 Watch these videos next...

Wild Hive Farm in the Hudson River Valley

Rion Nakaya

What is a constellation? – Crash Course Kids

Rion Nakaya

Wangari Maathai – “I will be a hummingbird”

Rion Nakaya

The Waterphone, an inharmonic, otherworldly instrument

Rion Nakaya

The Temple of Knowledge and what it’s like to grow up in a library

Rion Nakaya

The Story of the Two Wolves

Rion Nakaya

The Story Of King Midas, a stop-motion classic by Ray Harryhausen (1953)

Rion Nakaya

The Skeleton Dance, a 1929 Silly Symphony

Rion Nakaya

The Monomyth of the Hero’s Journey

Rion Nakaya