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
Music links nine stories, which include both familiar (``The Pied Piper'') and lesser-known tales (the Aboriginal ``Didgeridoo Magic'') from around the world. Adler (The Dial Book of Animal Tales, 1996, etc.) adapts the tales to her own voice, which makes them easy for modern audiences to read and understand, but which also makes this less appropriate for those seeking the spirit of the originals. For example, in ``The Singer and the Dolphin,'' the hero Arion ``sang like an angel,'' a description out of keeping with the pre-Christian-era setting of a Greek myth. However, Adler does cite her references for these stories, which use music both as a backdrop and as a focal point. ``Fairy Music'' is an Irish tale about a strange little band whose music makes all listeners dance. ``The Horse-Head Fiddle'' focuses on the musical instrument itself, explaining why Mongolian fiddles are decorated with a horse. Cencetti's gentle illustrations frame these stories in pastels and ornaments reflective of the tale's culture. Overall, the volume is pleasing, especially where issues of authenticity are not of prime concern. (Folklore. 8-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-7613-0401-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Millbrook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
Of books comprising nuggets of memory there seems to be no end, and in a companion volume to her Where the Flame Trees Bloom (1994, not reviewed), Ada recounts small stories of growing up in the town of in CamagÅey, Cuba. She captures with some feeling the powerful effect of scent on memory: night jasmine, coffee, ylang-ylang, and her grandmother’s perfume of lavender and sage. She immortalizes sibling hurts and uncles’ gifts, and writes of the childhood mystery of adult conversations partially overheard and partially understood. She is rich in family, attempting with her grandmother the impossible task of counting bats as they fly, and smashing her favorite doll when her dashing uncle dies in a plane crash. She is rich in memories of other adults, too: Madame Marie, a French-Jewish refugee; Gilda, a dance teacher, whose affection carried Ada through an impossible year at school. Some repetition does not detract, and children might be moved by Ada’s exhortation to consider their own family stories. (b&w photographs) (Memoir. 9-14)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-80631-0
Page Count: 86
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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