Low (The Family Read-Aloud Christmas Treasury, 1989, etc.) has collected scary tales from all walks of life. Many cultures are represented here: African-American, Russian, Chinese-American, Norwegian, and more. In addition to original stories, there are adaptations of traditional folktales. Some of the greats appear, like ``the Headless Horseman,'' but all of these spookers are excellent. George Harland's retelling of Charles Dickens's ``Captain Murderer'' has little Charles's nursemaid giving him a truly gruesome account of a man who married many women and then ate them. The nurse concludes with, ``And he went on swelling, and turning bluer, and screaming louder than ever, until...at one o'clock in the morning...he BLEW up with a loud explosion. `Good night, Master Charles, and pleasant dreams.' '' Penelope Lively's ``Uninvited Guests'' are a bunch of ghosts who are more annoying than terrifying to the children they haunt. Laurence Yep contributes a funny and horrifying tale, ``Bedtime Snacks,'' in which the evil monster Dagger Claws kills the hero's Auntie and younger brother and claims to be eating chestnuts as he chomps ``crunch, crunch, crunch'' on their bones. (One quibble: Why did Wilson choose to depict the two Chinese brothers as blonds?) Fantastically spooky and literate. (Fiction/Stories. 8+)
Pub Date: Oct. 31, 1994
ISBN: 0-7868-0012-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Norman (The Girl Who Dreamed Only Geese, 1997) presents seven trickster tales collected from living Algonquian storytellers, collated from multiple versions and backed up by specific source notes. That said, the scholarship is unobtrusive, and readers will have no trouble following Trickster from one pickle to the next. They may be puzzled at times—in the first story a meeting with a man/bear-hermit persuades Trickster, for some reason, to stop boasting that he’s “best at being alone”—but they’ll also laugh when Fox is bamboozled out of all but the feet of a brace of ducks, or when Trickster is tricked out in a coat of moldy fish heads in one tale, and a weasel’s tail in another. The lines of text are varied in length to evoke the cadences of live telling, and Pohrt’s human and animal figures are depicted with expressive, fine-lined realism. An inviting, inarguably authentic collection. (Folklore. 8-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-15-200888-8
Page Count: 82
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PLB 0-06-027967-2 In this diminished version of a familiar tale from the Grimms, Andreasen omits Snow White, focusing instead on a braver and more clever Rose Red. Rose Red has no fear when a burly bear comes knocking on her cottage door one winter’s night. She ushers the bear to the fire and brushes his coat free of snow. Rose Red and the bear become friends throughout the winter, but when there is a thaw, the bear tells her that he must go retrieve his treasure, stolen by a wicked dwarf. Wandering the forest one day, Rose Red comes upon that very same dwarf, his beard caught in a tree. She saves the little man but demands a portion of the bear’s treasure. Three times she comes upon the cantankerous dwarf in desperate straits and each time she assists him, eventually regaining the bear’s entire fortune, releasing him from the evil spell that had robbed him of his princehood. Although the heroine is nobody’s fool, she predictably marries royalty; there are no deaths, making this version even more benign. Andreasen’s elegant artwork, done in powdery hues, is nicely detailed, with every illustration framed in shimmering gold. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Feb. 29, 2000
ISBN: 0-06-027966-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
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