FICTION

Hide and Don’t Seek: And Other Very Scary Stories

Quill Tree/HarperCollins/. Aug. 2021. 224p. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780063026957.
COPY ISBN
Gr 4-6–When it comes to scary stories, this title delivers. Young readers will find tales of hair-raising animals, monsters, dreams, crows, ghosts, dolls, black cats, a strange summer camp, worms, vampires, things under the bed, murders, superstitions, and disappearances—all the makings of a modern-day classic. Some stories are updated versions of familiar scary tales while others feel quite new altogether. This book also features stories in diverse formats like prose, poetry, letters, a play, and even an eerie text message thread. The variety of text types is likely to appeal to a wide range of readers. Rissi also features diverse characters in these spine-chilling tales, with ethnically diverse names as well as a main character whose father has two mothers. A note to readers at the start of the book reminds us why we read scary stories, and how they can help kids rehearse their own navigation of the scary stuff of real life.
VERDICT Like Alvin Schwartz’s “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” this title shows promise of being read and retold again and again by this generation’s thrill-seekers.

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