Spine-tingling Halloween treats

REVIEWS BY DEBORAH HOPKINSON

Halloween used to be mostly for little kids, but in recent years teenagers and adults have embraced the holiday, not wanting to be left out of the parties, the chance to dress up and most of all, the age-old thrill of being scared. To add to the fun, this fall brings a new crop of scary collections especially for teens.

What Are You Afraid Of? Stories about Phobias is edited by Donald R. Gallo, a well-known anthologist of short stories for young readers. This collection includes pieces by some of today's top writers for young adults, including Joan Bauer, Angela Johnson and Jane Yolen. The phobias depicted in this book are not necessarily the obvious ones that typically form the basis of horror films, such as arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, or (despite the immense attention given to a certain recent film) herpetophobia, fear of snakes and other reptiles.

Instead, several of the stories provide keen insight into the lives of real teens. The collection opens with Alex Flinn's hauntingly realistic story, "The Door," about a teen named Cameron who has been struggling privately with an increasing sense of agoraphobia. Cameron's fear of leaving the house only intensifies when his parents leave on a trip. In Joan Bauer's poignant story, "Thin," a young woman struggles with an obsession with gaining weight. In David Lubar's humorous tale, "Claws and Effect," a teen named Randy discovers that the girl of his dreams has one unfortunate drawback: a cat named Johnny Depp. Unfortunately, Randy is deathly afraid of felines.


Creepy classics

Of course, scary stories have been with us for a long time. In a new anthology of horror stories, celebrated artist Barry Moser has created evocative and suspenseful wood block prints to accompany classic stories by such authors as Bram Stoker, H.G. Wells and O. Henry. Scary Stories is a handsome book and a gift that's perfect for Halloween, featuring well-known stories such as Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and an excerpt from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving. Also included are contemporary tales by modern masters such as Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates and Ray Bradbury.

Moser, the acclaimed illustrator of works including Just So Stories, In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, has created some magnificent artwork for this collection. There's a gorgeous, frightening tiger for Stephen King's "Here There Be Tygers," as well as some truly ghastly illustrations, especially the title character in E.F. Benson's "The Bus-Conductor." Scary Stories is a volume that is sure to become a classic all on its own.


And finally, if you're looking for truly terrifying fare to read aloud on Halloween, look no further than Vivian Vande Velde's book, All Hallows' Eve. All 13 stories in the collection take place on Halloween night. In "Pretending," Brian drives into the country to pick up his date for the evening and discovers that her parents seem a lot like vampires—or worse. Janelle visits a cemetery with her ninth-grade class in "Cemetery Field Trio," only to receive help from a most unexpected source when she is attacked in a mausoleum. And in the truly frightening "When and How," Marissa and her friends make a trip to a psychic who has the power to predict the time and place of death.

Readers will find themselves in good hands here. Vande Velde, who won an Edgar Award for her medieval mystery, Never Trust a Dead Man, is an expert at crafting hair-raising suspense.


Deborah Hopkinson's latest book for young readers is Into the Firestorm, A Novel of San Francisco 1906.

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