Review_CHILDREN’S
WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 105Review_CHILDREN’S Review_CHILDREN’S
A World Full of Spooky Stories: 50 Tales
to Make Your Spine Tingle
Angela McAllister, illus. by Madalina Andronic. Frances Lincoln,
$19.99 (128p) ISBN 978-0-7112-4148-0
This cross-cultural collection of supernatural folktales
includes such characters as a talking skull, a malevolent giantess,
and a clever thief. The stories, arranged by theme and
representing six continents, are concise—most no more than
three pages long—and told in plainspoken prose (“Long ago,
the sweetest apples in France grew on a tree that belonged to a
very grumpy woman”). Each tale notes its place of origin, and
though the various protagonists encounter an array of startling
bogeys (among them death and a devil), most come away safe
and wiser for the experience, leaving readers with pleasantly
gentle chills. Andronic’s gouache artwork combines folkloric
and modern sensibilities. With its emphasis on the spooky
versus the scary, it’s an excellent choice for young readers
building their bravery. Ages 5–8. (Sept.)Illuminightmare (Illumi #4)
Lucy Brownridge, illus. by Carnovsky. Wide Eyed, $30 (64p) ISBN 978-
1-78603-547-9
A dazzling format meets its ideal subject in this book, the
fourth in the Illumi series by the design duo Carnovsky. Readers
use a handheld viewer to decode three-in-one illustrations of 10
real-world places with haunted histories; a key explains what
each lens will show (history, place, supernatural elements).
Each location gets three illustrated spreads, among them one
with a short note introducing the site and its mysteries, and
one that offers snippets of information about the items pictured.
To the naked eye, the colorful chaos is hard to decipher—a
layered jumble of antique-style engraved images—but the
lenses reveal scenes of startling clarity: a 17th-century ship at
sea (the wreck of the Thérèse), a woodland studded with poisonous
mushrooms (the Black Forest), and the looming visage of a
grim-faced man (Bran Castle). It’s a satisfyingly analog
approach to ghost-spotting. Ages 7–11. (Oct.)Ghost: Thirteen Haunting Tales to Tell
Illustrátus. Chronicle, $21.99 (160p) ISBN 978-1-4521-7128-9
The footprints of an inkily indistinct figure trail across the
cover of this chilling story collection by design collective
Illustrátus. Inside, the 13 tense tales, some told in verse, skew
toward horrors that may not be suitable for readers at the
younger end of the stated age range. In “The Old Pond,” a
guilt-ridden child is dragged to his death by the spirit of his
dead sister. In “Point Whitney,” a boy trips and falls—“he
spit, seeing his two front teeth and blood spatter in the
snow”—then watches helplessly as his friend drowns, trapped
under ice. Framed by a stereotypically creepy storyteller (witha “flesh-colored prosthetic arm and
hook”) as the only “true ghost stories,”
the well-told tales deal in themes of
transformation and entrapment. Still,
some readers may scratch their heads at
the fact that boys seem to take center
stage. Grainy, muted illustrations
deftly combine texture and shape to
conjure truly nightmarish moments. Ages 8–12. (Aug.)The Ghostkeeper’s Journal & Field Guide:
An Augmented Reality Adventure
Japhet Asher. Carlton Kids, $22.95 (144p) ISBN 978-1-78312-398-8
Agamemnon White, the tuna-sandwich-eating ghost
hunter for the Society for the Pursuit of the Reputedly
Undead, Namely Ghosts (SPRUNG) has gone missing, and
his casebook, a case file journal that doubles as a ghost con-
tainment unit, holds the clues to the mystery. Much like a
narrative video game, the story of White’s disappearance
unspools as readers use an app to unlock images in sequence,
revealing clues and building backstory for the characters and
SPRUNG. The scrapbook-like format combines steampunk
aesthetics; trompe l’oeil ephemera such as snapshots, ticket
stubs, and notes; and mildly salty humor (e.g., a photo of a
plumber’s crack). Best understood as part of an app-based
game instead of a standalone read, the book requires access
to a phone or tablet, which may limit readership. The app’s
relative inflexibility may create additional frustrations for
some users. Ages 10–up. (Sept.)Tales from Beyond the Brain
Jeff Szpirglas, illus. by Steven P. Hughes. Orca, $12.95 (192p)
ISBN 978-1-45982-079-1
Reminiscent of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series, the 13
stories in this collection feature ordinary kids in situations of
spine-tingling (and sometimes hilarious) supernatural peril.
A popcorn kernel stuck between Jamie’s teeth grows into a set
of terrifying, sentient fangs in “A Kernel Takes Root”; a seem-
ingly innocuous cat leads well-intentioned Greg woefully
astray in “Whiskers”; and the brain Alice finds in the gutter
on her way home holds both the answers to her homework and
deeply malevolent intentions in “Two Brains, One Alice.”
Written in a snappy, declarative style—“Megan figured it
was because she was kind of like a bee herself... But, like a bee,
when Megan got angry, she could sting”—each tale
quickly builds suspense before closing with a zing. Hughes’s
illustrations punctuate the text with cartoonishly realistic
images that range from eerie luminescent figures to gory
eyeballs, complementing the stories to effectively introduce
young readers to the pleasures of the genre. Ages 9–12. (Sept.)Chill Thrills
Ghostly tales, altered realities, and supernatural stories for young readers.