Books like Ghosts! Ghostly Tales from Folklore

For folk tales and scary stories, especially ones taken from legends that have been making the rounds for many years, Alvin Schwartz is always my guy. He proved his ability at shaping and retelling tales of terror in his Scary Stories trilogy, crafting versions of legends that still give me goosebumps no matter how many times I've read them, and he's just as good at writing scary stories for even younger kids, those making the transition from picture books to chapter books. As with In a Dark, Dark Room, Alvin Schwartz in Ghosts!: Ghostly Tales from Folklore has managed to conjure up a little bit of that hair-raising sensation from his books for older kids, despite the fact that these stories are generally only a few pages long and never use more than three or four simple sentences per page. In truth, I can't think of anyone who wouldn't enjoy this book. Ghosts! opens with The Haunted House, a pithy tale derived from an English humor bit that floated around in the 1970s. What could have been told as a scary story is instead framed comedically, and gets things started for younger readers with the assurance that this book won't be too frightening for them. Next comes Susie, which for my money is probably the best story of the whole lot. A surprise awaits a young girl named Nan and her mother as they find a nice little cat they want to buy from a pet shop. Purchasing that particular cat, however, isn't as simple as it seems. After this is a story with a definite old United Kingdom feel to it, A Little Green Bottle, which hearkens back to Gaelic legends about troublesome ghosts who harangue the same person in death as they did when they were alive. In this case the victim is a boy named Joe, who seems fated to be bothered by the ghost of a former classmate for the rest of his life. That is, until he comes up with an idea that could get him off the hook... The Umbrella is a somewhat odd interlude about a man who receives an unexpected small gift while doing a good deed in a graveyard one day, only to pay it forward in surprising fashion many years later when the right time has come. Three Little Ghosts is just a single page in length, but its poetry is charming and funny, and the accompanying illustration is a good addition to the text. The Teeny-Tiny Woman is a "jump" story for the younger set, a scaled-down version of Mi Ti Doughty Walker, The Big Toe, The Attic and a hundred other stories designed to provide that "jump" moment right at the end of the narrative. The final tale in the collection is Ghost, Get Lost, which isn't as much a story as it is the relation of a short incantation said to banish any unwanted ghost if put into use. The book concludes with a brief rundown of where each basic story was found, and whether or not it was changed for the purposes of this book. I have to say right off that no one can hold a candle to the illustrations done by Stephen Gammell in Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories trilogy. However, Victoria Chess does quite a nice job in her own right for the illustrations in Ghosts!, subtly bringing out the scariness of each story without making it too intense for the youngest readers. I especially liked her drawing of the sunset over the graveyard on the final page opposite the "Where the stories come from" section, the orange beams of the setting sun softly illuminating a headstone with the words "THE END" engraved on it, a laurel wreath laid respectfully on the grassy mound in honor of the person resting in peace below. Even as this surprisingly touching scene demonstrates that there really is nothing to fear in a graveyard, it's just a place for us to remember and honor our loved ones who can no longer be here with us, we're also reminded that the preceding stories have all been about the idea that death isn't always "THE END", that there's humor and adventure and discovery associated with it and not necessarily anything to fear. Victoria Chess imparts all this in a single sweetly wistful illustration, and that is quite an accomplishment. I'm a fan of Alvin Schwartz for life, and I know I'm going to be back at it with this book many more times in the future, enjoying the stories on my own and with others at the Halloween season or anytime, for that matter. We lost a lot in Alvin Schwartz when he passed away in 1992, but I will never forget the profound contributions he made to the field of children's literature, and I hope there will continue to be others who remember, as well. Ghosts! is yet another solid storytelling effort from one of the all-time best, and I could easily be persuaded to give it two and a half stars.