In a dark, dark room and other scary stories

Seven very short, very spooky stories--prefaced by a timely reminder (""When there is no real danger, feeling scared is fun"") and concluded with a list of sources. The well-assorted tales include a variant of ""The Ghostly Hitchhiker,"" featuring a boy; a short, hilarious adaptation of the traditional song, ""A Woman All Skin and Bone"" (""A woman in a graveyard sat./ Ooooh!/ Very short and very fat./ Ooooh!""); and the classic ""Green Ribbon."" The pacing makes at once for comfortable and dramatic reading; the pictures are a ghastly, gloomy, wickedly funny lot. And Schwartz doesn't spoil these stories for later, expanded acquaintance--there's gravity as well as, snap in the telling. Once again, a standout job. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Gr 1–3—This collection of short stories (HarperCollins, 1984) retold by Alvin Schwartz are just creepy enough to give youngsters shivers without causing nightmares. The seven tales were collected from a variety of sources and include some classics such as "The Green Ribbon" (holding on a severed head) and "The Night It Rained" (a man discovers that his hitchhiker was a ghost). Dirk Zimmer performs the stories in a sepulchral tone with a measured pace and different voices for the characters. Background music is light and seems deliberately designed to lessen the scary mood. This Level 2 I Can Read book is perfect for younger children who are constantly pestering the librarian for "something scary."—Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary School, Federal Way, WA