Night Terrors: Stories of Shadow and Substance

Asked to produce short stories with the theme of night and terror, 11 prominent YA mystery writers have eagerly taken the road less traveled. Particularly spooky is ""The Bogey Man"" by Annette Curtis Klause, who makes a good argument for building houses without cellars. In Theodore Taylor's ""The Grind of an Axe,"" a family advertises for a Scandinavian nanny--and gets an axe-wielding Viking relative instead. ""Bearing Paul"" by Chris Lynch is a searing portrait of a boy required to be a pallbearer at his friend's funeral. Joan Lowery Nixon examines urban horrors with a story about a girl initiated into a teen gang; unfortunately, her slangy dialogue is hard-going. Other contributors are Patricia Windsor, Richard Peck, Harry Mazer, Norma Fox Mazer, Alane Ferguson, Joan Aiken and Madge Harrah--all of whom find plenty of room to spread their dark and sinister wings. Ages 12-up. (June) FYI: A portion of the proceeds from the sales of this book will be donated to the Young Adult Library Services Association of the ALA.