Fearful Fun: A Newbery Halloween: A Dozen Scary Stories by Newbery Award-Winning Authors

This collection of tales suitable for the scary season includes twelves stories by Newbery masters, ranging in tone from Beverly Cleary's Ramona the Pest as "The Baddest Witch" in her first costumed Halloween parade, to Paul Fleischman's elegantly atmospheric "The Man of Influence," in which a down-on-his-luck Italian sculptor accepts a commission from a spectre which reveals a heartless murder.

Familiar characters such as Jennifer from Jennifer, Hecate, MacBeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, and Lynn Morley from Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's The Witch's Eye make cameo appearances. There are tales from venerable authors like Elizabeth Coatsworth's "Witch Girl," and Eleanor Estes' "The Ghost in the Attic," from her humorous classic The Moffats, as well as folklore classics such as Arthur Bouse Christman's retelling of "Ah Tcha the Sleeper." E. L. Konigsburg's second contribution is a light-hearted ghost tale, "Camp Fat," in which a mysterious Russian "night counselor" appears with mysterious handcrafted puzzles which offer camper Carla clues to losing weight.

This volume is filled with stories great for reading aloud or reading alone. There's nothing grisly or gory here, no "Goosebumps" monsters or things from the crypt to provoke nightmares, but there are some quality stories of that tingly moment when the supernatural may break through the veil into real life.