This collection should be quite useful anytime scary stories are needed.

Introduction: Richard and Judy Young, professional storytellers based at Silver Dollar City, Mo., collected the favorite scary stories of American children. The authors admonish tellers to tell these stories responsibly in the introduction.

Organization: There is a table of contents, but the twenty-three stories are in no apparent order. The illustrations are simple ink drawings with blue accents. They are not integral to the stories.

The stories themselves: Most of the tales are American or European in origin and a few are from Asia brought here by immigrants and soldiers returning from Viet Nam.

The stories are mostly quite short and easily told as written.

The stories are divided into three groups: for ages 5 or 6, 7 or 8, and 9 or 10. The older group could also enjoy reading the stories.

Source Notes: The source notes, though brief, are detailed. The authors list the history of the tale and in many cases who they first heard it from.

The "Afterword for parents, teachers, and librarians" discusses the importance of storytelling and what to be careful of when telling scary stories.

There is a useful guide to pronunciation.

©2004 Librarians.info. All rights reserved. Karen Woodworth-Roman Last updated 29 March 2004.