What do you think?
Rate this book
A Newbery Halloween: A Dozen Scary Stories by Newbery Award-Winning Authors
A collection of thirteen scary stories by Newbery Medalists Beverly Cleary, Madeleine L'Engle, Paul Fleishman, Eleanor Estes, and E. L. Konigsbury, among others, provides thrills and chills, ghosts and witches, to make any Halloween perfectly spooky.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
9 people are currently reading
182 people want to read
About the author
Martin H. Greenberg
910 books162 followersMartin Harry Greenberg was an American academic and speculative fiction anthologist. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies and commissioned over 8,200 original short stories. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books. In addition, he was a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel.
For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.
For the 1950s anthologist and publisher of Gnome Press, see Martin Greenberg.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
October 23, 2022
Not as terrible as A Newbery Christmas: Fourteen Stories of Christmas by Newbery Award-Winning Authors, and about as diverse as the contents of a typical trick-or-treat bag.
And like the piled candies you greedily rifle through at the end of Hallowe'en, none of them are amazing. Some are enjoyable. Some are the sort that you immediately attempt to trade away to a credulous younger sibling for something better. And most are like those Kerr's toffees or Tootsie Rolls, who no one really loves, but they're a source of sugar, and they were free, so...
I've roundedup down (edited) from a 2.5, because there are a couple of stories here I might actually re-read. But here's the inside flap of the dust-jacket, which I think foreshadows the contents of this absolute hodge-podge of a collection rather well:
Don't force kids to sit and listen to you read stories on Hallowe'en night. That's just cruel.
I think this little sales pitch nicely depicts the problem with this book - the thought here was obviously "let's take some random Halloweeny stories from a limited selection of authors of juvenile fiction and stick 'em all together and sell it to busy teachers, while simultaneously reenforcing our brand". And that's just what they did. And the product of that is exactly what you'd expect: a mixed bag. Lloyd Alexander's introduction was more of the same - needed a toothpick to yank the caramel residue out of my fillings afterwards:Here, I briefly consider knocking off a star just for this self-congratulatory BS, but refrain, leaving it at a very generous 3/5. EDIT: I did knock a star off an hour later, upon reflection that I gave the Newbery Christmas a 1. This is one star better, not more. And, I should mention, that it's Martin H. Greenberg who was the editor, not Alexander. Couldn't tell with all that sucking up going on).
Contents, in order:
Beverly Cleary "The Baddest Witch in the World" - this is simply Chapter 6 of Ramona the Pest.
I liked it - made me want to read the rest of that book. (Ramona was the saving grace of A Newbery Christmas: Fourteen Stories of Christmas by Newbery Award-Winning Authors, which I detest and use as a glühwein coaster for the sofa). 'The Baddest Witch in the World' is a cute episode of Ramona trying to differentiate herself from all the other scary-looking witches with the same mask at the Halloween parade, so she can enjoy her notoriety.
= Cute.
Elizabeth Coatsworth "Witch Girl".
Wow, did this suck. I'm not even sure what to say - starts as a ghost story, set on the moors on a dark and stormy night, and ends up happily ever after with the witches rethinking their career choices. I'm not even going to bother with spoiler tags - it spoiled itself.
= Sucked.
E.L. Konigsburg "A Halloween to Remember", 'taken from Chapters 1 and 2 of Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth'.
So this was quite cute, again. Unfortunately, I was already annoyed because this was story #3 of "a dozen scary stories", and none of these were remotely scary nor designed to be. But this was alright, I suppose. Made me mildly interested in reading the full book, but not enough to click the Want to Read button.
= Cute. Again.
Eleanor Estes "The Ghost in the Attic", 'taken from Chapter 5 of The Moffats'.
Again, what am I supposed to say or think? NOT SCARY. Cute, memorable perhaps if you had read the book, and more atmospheric than the preceding stories but... not scary! Where is scary?! Also, I'm a bit annoyed that most of these have been torn out of books I might have better enjoyed reading in full, by this point.
= I was promised SCARY. This was 'atmospheric', at most
Madeleine L'Engle "Poor Little Saturday".
FINALLY. Finally, a short and spooky story with some supernatural substance. And malaria, lots of malaria. I liked this one. Would give it a 4/5. Wasn't scary per se, but there was depth and creepiness and all the good stuff like dancing skeletons and an evil witch who may or may not have had something human left of her. It was nicely ambiguous. Oh, and a camel. And a magic/enchanted ring. Opens mentioning the suicide of a bereaved southern belle, hanged on her chandelier.
= Better. This is the sort of stuff I expected.
Arthur Bowie Chrisman "Ah Tcha the Sleeper".
I get excited about titles like this. It suggests to me possibilities, like "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming", or the Knights of the Round Table in enchanted sleep within a remote Celtic barrowmound. What I didn't expect was a creation myth about Oo Loong tea (and tea in general). Tea. Ancient southern China, a rich orphan, an overworked employee who turns out to be a witch (of limited prowress), and a big black Chinese dragon. I liked it. I will probably bookmark it and refer to it again. But it had absolutely nothing to do with Halloween or anything spooky, unless you count a rather lacklustre peasant witch.
= Origin story of tea. Discordant!
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor "The Witch's Eye", taken from Chapters 14 and 15 of The Witch's Eye.
Properly scary. This, and l'Engle's, was the sort of thing I expected. Maybe the Ramona and maybe the one by Konigsburg as lighter sides, but this was the sort of cinematic horror I expected. Didn't like it enough to want to read more, however.
= Scary and satisfying
Charles J. Finger "The Magic Ball".
If you ever wanted an Anansi/Pourquoi?/Spider Story set in Mexico (?: Cordilleras; Luis is MC) for why turkeys have wave-patterned feathers, why geese are grey, and why flamingoes are pink, here's your story. It also has a witch, a condor, and a brother and sister, and I thought the premise was scary enough (the magic ball is hidden where children play to lure them to the evil witch for sacrifice).
= A little scary with adept imagery
Paul Fleischman "The Man of Influence".
And now, a ghost story from Renaissance Genoa, Italy! All over the map, this collection. This was alright - creepy in its moral (the powerful and wealthy are perhaps not admirable people... dirty money, etc.).
= Alright.
E.L. Konigsburg (again) "Camp Fat".
Argh. ARGH. Well, it's scary in that it blatantly reinforces the idea that fat is ugly and needs to be removed for a girl to be of value to her family, the community, and in general. WTactualF. Straight onto my "Fat Shaming" list. Really rotten stuff. A helpful ghost helps Clara see how she would look if she were skinny, and that's enough to make her mend her ways, permanently. Writing was funny, thesis was ugly.
= Helpful ghost helps girl be skinny. Scary for the wrong reasons.
Elizabeth Coatsworth (again) "The Horse of War God".
Now let's go to Feudal Japan! Here's a story about lazy priests not honouring the reason for the erection of the temples they populate in the first place, and only a near-miss with an enraged God of War because of the love of a faithful orphan boy for a semi-deified horse. Not a bad "a boy and his horse"-story. Not especially scary or anything, though.
= Would have gone nicely with the Ah Tcha tea story in an Asian mythology collection for kids, but has f all to do with Halloween.
Virginia Hamilton "The Year Halloween Happened One Day Early", taken from Chapters 7 and 8 of Willie Bea and the Time the Martians Landed. Ginny clearly wrote this to be educational, perhaps to give her a leg-up on a Newbery, who knows. Not only do we relive H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds from the perspective of some panicking family I don't know much about and didn't get much of an introduction to (Bay Sister, Bay Brother, and Willie Bea are the kids, plus some adult relations and neighbours?), we also get to learn about dirigibles, Zeppelins, the Hindenberg, the Hindenberg disaster, and who Von Hindenberg was and that he was a Nazi patsy. I guess there were Jack o'Lanterns in the story...
= Educational.
Bottom-line here: I wouldn't pay money for this*, unless there's a short story here you can't get anywhere else and you desperately need it for completion purposes or something. Listopia has lists for Halloween recommendations from other readers (and teachers, looking for material for class) - I'd go there, first. The well Greenberg was drawing from was too shallow for this to live up to its advertised merits.
*and you don't have to - can read it for free on OpenLibrary, if you are still interested, that is!
And like the piled candies you greedily rifle through at the end of Hallowe'en, none of them are amazing. Some are enjoyable. Some are the sort that you immediately attempt to trade away to a credulous younger sibling for something better. And most are like those Kerr's toffees or Tootsie Rolls, who no one really loves, but they're a source of sugar, and they were free, so...
I've rounded
HALLOWEEN. A time for ghosts and goblins and scary stories. And who better to tell those stories than authors who have won the Newbery Medal? Indeed, there are no more skilled storytellers than those honored as winners of the John Newbery Medal for their contributions to literature for children.
This collection contains stories by authors known and loved by children everywhere, from E. L. Konigsburg to Madeleine l'Engle, Beverly Cleary, and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. There are also selections by writers familiar to their parents and grandparents, from Elisabeth Coatsworth to Eleanor Estes and Charles J. Finger.
Some of these stories are about ghosts, such as Eleanor Este's "The Ghost in the Attic" and Paul Fleischman's "The Man of Influence". There are witches, as in Madeleine l'Engle's "Poor Little Saturday" and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's "The Witch's Eye". And there are warm and familiar Halloween stories, like Beverly Cleary's "The Baddest Witch in the World" from Ramona the Pest and E. L. Konigsburg's "Jennifer's Halloween to Remember".
These stories should be read aloud on Halloween night as well as in front of a campfire or in a car or a classroom or during a library story hour. Most of all, this book is for sharing.
A portion of the royalties from this book will be donated to the American Literacy Association, administrators of the John Newbery Medal.
All Ages
Don't force kids to sit and listen to you read stories on Hallowe'en night. That's just cruel.
I think this little sales pitch nicely depicts the problem with this book - the thought here was obviously "let's take some random Halloweeny stories from a limited selection of authors of juvenile fiction and stick 'em all together and sell it to busy teachers, while simultaneously reenforcing our brand". And that's just what they did. And the product of that is exactly what you'd expect: a mixed bag. Lloyd Alexander's introduction was more of the same - needed a toothpick to yank the caramel residue out of my fillings afterwards:
Yes, of course, this present volume is fun, with chills, thrills, and bursts of laughter. As well, there are bright strands of beauty, poetry, and moments of unexpected poignancy. It's a very durable collection, reaching past the Halloween season, which is short, to enrich young readers' literart experiences, which is a lifelong process.(
Contents, in order:
Beverly Cleary "The Baddest Witch in the World" - this is simply Chapter 6 of Ramona the Pest.
I liked it - made me want to read the rest of that book. (Ramona was the saving grace of A Newbery Christmas: Fourteen Stories of Christmas by Newbery Award-Winning Authors, which I detest and use as a glühwein coaster for the sofa). 'The Baddest Witch in the World' is a cute episode of Ramona trying to differentiate herself from all the other scary-looking witches with the same mask at the Halloween parade, so she can enjoy her notoriety.
= Cute.
Elizabeth Coatsworth "Witch Girl".
Wow, did this suck. I'm not even sure what to say - starts as a ghost story, set on the moors on a dark and stormy night, and ends up happily ever after with the witches rethinking their career choices. I'm not even going to bother with spoiler tags - it spoiled itself.
= Sucked.
E.L. Konigsburg "A Halloween to Remember", 'taken from Chapters 1 and 2 of Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth'.
So this was quite cute, again. Unfortunately, I was already annoyed because this was story #3 of "a dozen scary stories", and none of these were remotely scary nor designed to be. But this was alright, I suppose. Made me mildly interested in reading the full book, but not enough to click the Want to Read button.
= Cute. Again.
Eleanor Estes "The Ghost in the Attic", 'taken from Chapter 5 of The Moffats'.
Again, what am I supposed to say or think? NOT SCARY. Cute, memorable perhaps if you had read the book, and more atmospheric than the preceding stories but... not scary! Where is scary?! Also, I'm a bit annoyed that most of these have been torn out of books I might have better enjoyed reading in full, by this point.
= I was promised SCARY. This was 'atmospheric', at most
Madeleine L'Engle "Poor Little Saturday".
FINALLY. Finally, a short and spooky story with some supernatural substance. And malaria, lots of malaria. I liked this one. Would give it a 4/5. Wasn't scary per se, but there was depth and creepiness and all the good stuff like dancing skeletons and an evil witch who may or may not have had something human left of her. It was nicely ambiguous. Oh, and a camel. And a magic/enchanted ring. Opens mentioning the suicide of a bereaved southern belle, hanged on her chandelier.
= Better. This is the sort of stuff I expected.
Arthur Bowie Chrisman "Ah Tcha the Sleeper".
I get excited about titles like this. It suggests to me possibilities, like "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming", or the Knights of the Round Table in enchanted sleep within a remote Celtic barrowmound. What I didn't expect was a creation myth about Oo Loong tea (and tea in general). Tea. Ancient southern China, a rich orphan, an overworked employee who turns out to be a witch (of limited prowress), and a big black Chinese dragon. I liked it. I will probably bookmark it and refer to it again. But it had absolutely nothing to do with Halloween or anything spooky, unless you count a rather lacklustre peasant witch.
= Origin story of tea. Discordant!
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor "The Witch's Eye", taken from Chapters 14 and 15 of The Witch's Eye.
Properly scary. This, and l'Engle's, was the sort of thing I expected. Maybe the Ramona and maybe the one by Konigsburg as lighter sides, but this was the sort of cinematic horror I expected. Didn't like it enough to want to read more, however.
= Scary and satisfying
Charles J. Finger "The Magic Ball".
If you ever wanted an Anansi/Pourquoi?/Spider Story set in Mexico (?: Cordilleras; Luis is MC) for why turkeys have wave-patterned feathers, why geese are grey, and why flamingoes are pink, here's your story. It also has a witch, a condor, and a brother and sister, and I thought the premise was scary enough (the magic ball is hidden where children play to lure them to the evil witch for sacrifice).
= A little scary with adept imagery
Paul Fleischman "The Man of Influence".
And now, a ghost story from Renaissance Genoa, Italy! All over the map, this collection. This was alright - creepy in its moral (the powerful and wealthy are perhaps not admirable people... dirty money, etc.).
= Alright.
E.L. Konigsburg (again) "Camp Fat".
Argh. ARGH. Well, it's scary in that it blatantly reinforces the idea that fat is ugly and needs to be removed for a girl to be of value to her family, the community, and in general. WTactualF. Straight onto my "Fat Shaming" list. Really rotten stuff. A helpful ghost helps Clara see how she would look if she were skinny, and that's enough to make her mend her ways, permanently. Writing was funny, thesis was ugly.
= Helpful ghost helps girl be skinny. Scary for the wrong reasons.
Elizabeth Coatsworth (again) "The Horse of War God".
Now let's go to Feudal Japan! Here's a story about lazy priests not honouring the reason for the erection of the temples they populate in the first place, and only a near-miss with an enraged God of War because of the love of a faithful orphan boy for a semi-deified horse. Not a bad "a boy and his horse"-story. Not especially scary or anything, though.
= Would have gone nicely with the Ah Tcha tea story in an Asian mythology collection for kids, but has f all to do with Halloween.
Virginia Hamilton "The Year Halloween Happened One Day Early", taken from Chapters 7 and 8 of Willie Bea and the Time the Martians Landed. Ginny clearly wrote this to be educational, perhaps to give her a leg-up on a Newbery, who knows. Not only do we relive H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds from the perspective of some panicking family I don't know much about and didn't get much of an introduction to (Bay Sister, Bay Brother, and Willie Bea are the kids, plus some adult relations and neighbours?), we also get to learn about dirigibles, Zeppelins, the Hindenberg, the Hindenberg disaster, and who Von Hindenberg was and that he was a Nazi patsy. I guess there were Jack o'Lanterns in the story...
= Educational.
Bottom-line here: I wouldn't pay money for this*, unless there's a short story here you can't get anywhere else and you desperately need it for completion purposes or something. Listopia has lists for Halloween recommendations from other readers (and teachers, looking for material for class) - I'd go there, first. The well Greenberg was drawing from was too shallow for this to live up to its advertised merits.
*and you don't have to - can read it for free on OpenLibrary, if you are still interested, that is!
September 30, 2014
I was mildly disappointed with this book because I was hoping to read some short fiction by some of the best children's/young adult authors in the business. Instead, these were mostly cuttings from novels -- and generally from novels that I had already read.
However, for the reader who might not be familiar with these authors, or someone looking for shorter works with a Halloween theme, this is probably a nice place to look. It's hard to go wrong with a line-up that includes: Elizabeth Coatsworth, Virginia Hamilton, E.L. Konigsburg, Paul Fleischman, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Madeleine L'Engle, Eleanor Estes, Beverly Cleary, and Lloyd Alexander!
However, for the reader who might not be familiar with these authors, or someone looking for shorter works with a Halloween theme, this is probably a nice place to look. It's hard to go wrong with a line-up that includes: Elizabeth Coatsworth, Virginia Hamilton, E.L. Konigsburg, Paul Fleischman, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Madeleine L'Engle, Eleanor Estes, Beverly Cleary, and Lloyd Alexander!
October 31, 2012
And last, but not least, is a book that I found in a second hand bookshop that is no longer in print but still easily obtainable:
A Newbery Halloween: a dozen scary stories by Newbery Award-winning authors, selected by Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh
This collection of Halloween stories are made up of short stories and excerpts from novels all by authors who may already be familiar to and even a favorite of kids. Beverly Cleary begins the fun with a story about Ramona the Pest in "The Baddest Witch in the World" and the selections just get better. And how about Jennifer in "A Halloween to Remember" by E.L. Konigsburg. Or Phyllis Reyonlds Naylor's "The Witch's Eye" from the book by the same name. There is sure to be something in this volume that will be everyone in this volume for kids age 8 to 12. These stories are great for reading aloud or alone, all of them are spooky and entertaining without being too scary. And I love the Halloween cover illustration by Norman Rockwell.
A Newbery Halloween: a dozen scary stories by Newbery Award-winning authors, selected by Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh
This collection of Halloween stories are made up of short stories and excerpts from novels all by authors who may already be familiar to and even a favorite of kids. Beverly Cleary begins the fun with a story about Ramona the Pest in "The Baddest Witch in the World" and the selections just get better. And how about Jennifer in "A Halloween to Remember" by E.L. Konigsburg. Or Phyllis Reyonlds Naylor's "The Witch's Eye" from the book by the same name. There is sure to be something in this volume that will be everyone in this volume for kids age 8 to 12. These stories are great for reading aloud or alone, all of them are spooky and entertaining without being too scary. And I love the Halloween cover illustration by Norman Rockwell.
October 27, 2012
I picked this up at the library and have been reading one story a night to the children, leading up to Halloween. I wasn't sure if my 6 year old would sit through some of them but I needn't have worried. Both my 8 year-old and my 6 year-old LOVE the stories, and my 3 year-old will even sit through a couple of them. Wonderful collection by some of my favorite writers, including Eleanor Estes and Beverly Cleary. I'm now looking for the Newbery Christmas in preparation for the upcoming holiday season.
October 21, 2025
This collection started out pretty well. I gave the first five stories some level of an “A” grade. From there it degenerated, although I did like The Witch’s Eye and Camp Fat. I gave the last story in the collection a C-. My favorite story in the collection was Poor Little Saturday by Madeleine L’Engle. The Witch’s Eye was the only genuinely scary story in the collection. The first story made me go out and buy a bunch of Ramona books which I had previously scorned (and haven’t read yet ). In a flurry of enthusiasm I ordered a Newberry Christmas, but based on another reviewer’s rating that may have been a mistake. 😄
November 5, 2020
This was definitely a mixed bag. Some of them were interesting and funny, but definitely dated, like Camp Fat by E.L. Konigsburg, a few very eerie like The Witch's Eye by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, while others started out well but fizzled by the end like Witch Girl by Elizabeth Coatsworth. Also be aware that the descriptive sentence declaring these "A Dozen Scary Stories" is a bit misleading as only about one or two in my opinion actually attempted to be scary. I would suggest this more for people who wish to find stories to read with and to their kids then to read for themselves.
October 5, 2021
Quaint, but in the best way, this anthology brings back that elementary school feeling of stepping on leaves, handmade costumes, Halloween parades and spooky grade-school memories. Chances are there's no story or excerpt in here you'll know by heart, but lots of author names and a few characters you may remember from long ago. My only quibble is the repeat use of excerpts from longer works that don't all manage to stand on their own, even with added context given.
March 24, 2019
Scary Halloween stories for middle grades. This book is excerpts and on the one hand you can consume several stories without much effort, but on the other hand, you don't get the detail or satisfaction of reading the whole story.
September 11, 2022
Okay, seriously, this was my favorite Halloween book as a kid. I could not wait to pull this from the library shelf every October. That being said, I couldn't remember too much about this collection, so I thought I would pull it off the shelf for another time.
This turned out to be quite a fun, spooky collection of Halloween stories for younger readers. Nothing was too scary, but there were some that did give me the chills while reading them at night. This would definitely be perfect for reading aloud with the youngsters. Not only that, but these stories were all written by Newbery-award-winning authors, so they're good, solid stories. There isn't too much to say about any of the stories in particular, but I enjoyed that there was a nice mixture of stories. Some were funny, some were spooky, and there were even some that featured legends/stories from different cultures.
This turned out to be quite a fun, spooky collection of Halloween stories for younger readers. Nothing was too scary, but there were some that did give me the chills while reading them at night. This would definitely be perfect for reading aloud with the youngsters. Not only that, but these stories were all written by Newbery-award-winning authors, so they're good, solid stories. There isn't too much to say about any of the stories in particular, but I enjoyed that there was a nice mixture of stories. Some were funny, some were spooky, and there were even some that featured legends/stories from different cultures.
November 15, 2024
I've had this book for decades and never finished. It is a mixed bag of a few delightful Halloween tales extracted from books by familiar authors I enjoy. The other stories were mediocre and forgettable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 20, 2024
Twelve Halloween stories from well known Newbery Award winning children's book authors. These stories include ghosts, witches, magic, and spooky events of various kinds, and are just right for reading aloud around Halloween.
October 30, 2017
A fun read; but only about half of the stories are Halloween themed.
November 27, 2017
A great collection of authors, but the stories selected were not always good.
October 24, 2019
Quick and easy read just in time for Halloween.
November 5, 2019
A marvellous collection that should really be in print. A grouping of favorite passages about Halloween from Newbery winning fiction, as well as short stories by Newbery winners. A treasure.
December 15, 2019
I'm not usually a fan of collections, but for seasonal reads, especially from Newbery authors, it is a fun way to celebrate the holiday; albeit a late finish.
March 16, 2020
A serviceable collection of Halloween stories. A quick read.
October 18, 2020
I loved them all except the “Camp Fat” story because that story was not kind.
November 10, 2020
This was such a fun read. We used this as our Halloween read a loud. A great collection of fun, spooky stories to put you in the mood.
October 9, 2022
Some of the stories are pretty interesting, others not so much. A few aren’t original stories at all, just excerpts taken from the authors’ books.
October 30, 2022
Wonderful Halloween anthology from Children’s authors. A must have book for elementary school libraries and teachers.
November 5, 2023
There were some good stories in this and some bizarre ones. It was a fun travel back in time to read all of them, though.
October 31, 2025
I have the Newbery Christmas book and have read it in December for years...I love it. These stories...yikes. I only enjoyed a few.
October 23, 2025
Not what I was expecting, didn’t get the nostalgic feeling I was hoping for with these selected stories.
November 5, 2019
I did not enjoy this as much as A Newberry Christmas.
October 14, 2008
This book is promoted as "A dozen scary stories by Newbery Award-winning authors." The part about the authors is correct; the part about scary stories couldn't be further from the truth. (Which work out very well for my crew!) I brought this book home from the library, announcing that we could read one Halloween story every night and my children's enthusiasm was lacking to say the least. After reading the first short story by Beverly Clearly, it became something they looked forward to each day. It's a fun family read-aloud that is geared for children between 5 and 11.
October 17, 2013
I'm not wild about this collection, but the inclusion of "Poor Little Saturday" (a short story by Madeleine L'Engle) makes owning this book worth it. It's a quirky, atmospheric witch story set in a mouldering plantation house in the South. I love the characters so much and wish that this could have been turned into a full-length novel.
November 5, 2011
Collection of loosely Halloween related stories (some are just about witches). Since I'm not a huge fan of either short stories or Halloween, this wasn't my favourite book - just read it for the season. The excerpts from classic kids' books like the Moffats were the best.
October 11, 2012
I took this book out of the library last October & loved it so much that I bought a used copy online. My new tradition is to read these short stories each Halloween. Very enjoyable, not-so-traditional Halloween fun.
January 2, 2018
We read about half of these stories in the month of October. Some were better than others, and none of them were that scary. I find it's hard to get invested in the characters of short stories, so often the boys didn't ask to read or we did other things.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews