SHORT CIRCUITS

From both sides of the Atlantic, 13 horror stories featuring teenagers giving good accounts of themselves in scary situations. Ghosts appear to: reenact murders in Francis A. Miller's ``Something's Different'' and again in Elsa Marston's ``Anubis''; nab a pair of art thieves in Joan Aiken's ``A Nasty, Muddy Ghost Dog''; and urge a lover toward suicide in Jane McFann's ``TLA.'' Lurking evil takes more unconventional forms when Morgan Le Fay surfaces as a wicked librarian in Gary Blackwood's ``Ethan Unbound''; and when Will, already terrified by a blackout, discovers (in Ellen Conford's delicious ``For Pete's Snake'') that his sister's pet boa has given copious birth on his bed. Gallo, editor of Visions (1987) and other YA anthologies, prefaces each story with a practiced teaser and appends intriguing comments about the author's life and writing. Plenty of terror, excitement, and laughter, some macabre twists, but surprisingly little blood. (Fiction/Short Stories. 11-18)