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HOOK MOON NIGHT by Faye Gibbons

HOOK MOON NIGHT

Spooky Tales from the Georgia Mountains

by Faye Gibbons & illustrated by Ronald Himler

Pub Date: Sept. 26th, 1997
ISBN: 0-688-14504-3
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

While visiting his grandparents, Mike sits on the porch with them and other relatives one dark night, listening to their stories about ``haints'' and other backwoods phenomena: a boy chosen to be a teacher by a ghost, a quilt that shows pictures of the results of wishes, and a necklace that brings bad luck. Gibbons (Mountain Wedding, 1996, etc.) gives the stories the atmosphere and feel of those told on hot summer nights—loosely structured, meandering narration, vague endings, only modestly creepy—and pulls readers in with vividly imagined scenes and a persuasive intimacy: The stories all happened ``hereabouts.'' It's difficult to conjure up the power of oral storytelling on the page, but in many ways, Gibbons succeeds. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Short stories. 8+)