Living ghosts & mischievous monsters Chilling American Indian stories

Jones, of the Ponca nation, is a storyteller and collector of Native American stories, and during his travels, he's heard his fair share of ghostly tales, some of which are ancient and others contemporary. Stating that "Ghost stories are always close to us because ghosts are part of our daily world," Jones shares a delectable assortment of spine-tinglers divided into sections on ghosts, spirits, witches, monsters, and the supernatural. He introduces each section of five to eight stories with general information on how these otherworldly forces operate or are perceived within Indigenous communities, acknowledging variations therein. Readers will encounter helpful ghosts, frightening scenes akin to possessions as portrayed in popular culture, cursed dolls, and a terrifying cannibal whose heart of ice is shaped like a human baby. And as awesome as these stories are, what makes this book a real treasure is the context that Jones provides for each tale. Every story in the book is credited to either an individual or tribe (usually both) and briefly prefaced by background on Native or specific tribal beliefs relevant to the story about to be told. For some of these stories, Jones is both teller and participant in the events he shares, for others he simply relays the accounts of others. It is an intimate and enriching reading experience that will be a boo-n to library shelves.

A mix of 32 timeless chillers and personal encounters with the supernatural gathered from Native American storytellers and traditions. Carefully acknowledging his oral, online, and print sources (and appending lists of additional ones), Jones (Ponca) intersperses his own anecdotes and retellings with accounts by others collected in his travels. The generally brief entries are gathered into types, from brushes with ghosts or spirits (the latter distinguished by having "more complex agendas" than the former) to witches and monsters. In them, the tone ranges from mild eeriness--hearing an elder relative on the porch just moments after she died and seeing small footprints appear in wet concrete near the burial ground of an abandoned Oklahoma boarding school--to terrifying glimpses of were-owls, were-otters, a malign walking doll, and a giant water serpent with a "sinister smile." They all join the more familiar (in children's books, anyway) likes of Bigfoot and La Llorona. Linked to a broad diversity of traditions spanning the North American continent, the stories, both old--there's one ascribed to the ancient Mississippian culture--and those given recent, even modern settings, are related in matter-of-fact language that underscores a common sense of how close the natural and supernatural worlds are. In sometimes-intricate ink drawings, Alvitre (Tongva) amps the creepiness by alternating depictions of everyday items with grinning skulls, heaps of bones, and the odd floating head. Valuable both for its broad range and shivery appeal. (introductory notes) (Traditional literature. 8-11) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.