WHISTLE IN THE GRAVEYARD: Folktales to Chill Your Bones

by Maria Leach ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 20, 1974

Chill your bones, if you dare, with the tale of ""Raw Head and Bloody Bones,"" the voice of the ghost who calls out in the clark ""Tilly, I'm coming up the stairs,"" or the ghastly habit of a New Mexican witch who left her eyeballs in a saucer at night and borrowed her cat's eyes in the meanwhile. Leach reels off one ghost legend after another with obvious relish. Many are pitched for a laugh -- like the stubborn old codger who sits on the graveyard fence and pooh-poohs the news of his own death (""Taint so""), but the best combine a joke with gasp of horror, as does the saga of the unkillable tomcat, who even after having his neck severed with an axe, comes ""trottin' out the road with his head in his mouth."" Teachers and librarians will welcome Leach's notes, complete with citations from Thompson's Motif Index, but these are by no means sit-on-the-shelf ghosts; as Leach reminds us, ""the ghost is honor bound to scare people,"" and these certainly succeed.

Pub Date: May 20, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION