Truly Scary Stories for Fearless Kids

Lois Provost Turchetti is a professional children’s storyteller (in
English and Caribbean Creole), who also conducts educational workshops
in Toronto.

Strange twists of fate, violence, ghosts, the dead, witchcraft, and the
devil are featured in this anthology of scary stories and poetry. Bram
Stoker, Washington Irving, Guy de Maupassant, and Robert Service (whose
“Cremation of Sam McGee” is included) are among the writers
represented.

Many stories are not suitable for younger readers. They include “The
Hand,” in which a dried specimen kills its keeper in the night; “A
Change of Aunts,” in which a nanny who committed suicide possesses the
body of an abusive aunt in order to take “proper” care of young Meg
and William; and “The Kit-Bag,” in which a murderer’s ghost
returns after suicide to claim—for a shroud—the bloody bag in which
he had stuffed his victim. Among those stories that may be appropriate
for children under 12 are “The Doll’s Ghost,” “The Train
Room,” and “The King of the Cats.” Recommended with reservations.