The August House book of scary stories Spooky tales for telling out loud

Gr 4-8-Each of these 20 chilling tales is meant to be told out loud and includes author notes about how to maximize the spooky effect. Middle schoolers will relish reading and sharing these tales, hoping to creep each other out. While some of the stories are spookier than others, this is still a worthwhile addition for fans of Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (HarperCollins, 1986) and Robert D. San Souci's Short and Shivery (Random, 2001). The book also deserves a place in professional storytelling collections.-Esther Keller, I.S. 278, Marine Park, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From the African-American tale of "Johnny and the Dead Man's Liver" to the Civil War ghost story of "One Lace Glove," this anthology of 20 scary stories iswell, really scary! Grouped into five categoriesJust Desserts and Lessons Learned, Ghostly Guardians, Dark Humor, Urban Legends and Jump Tales, and Fearless Femalesthere is a good mix of countries of origin and time periods. What makes these tales jump are the voices of the tellings, contributed by 20 different professional storytellers, along with tips on how to tell the story, background notes and the teller's profile. Not for preschoolers by any means, these tales are exactly what the subtitle says. A few are familiar, such as "The Boy Who Drew Cats," and people interested in storytelling will recognize some of the tellers' names, such as Margaret Read MacDonald. From a macabre "Gingerbread Man" to the popular "The Red Satin Ribbon," these spine-tinglers will have storytellers of all kinds jumping at the chance to tell their favorites. (Folklore. 10 up) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.