Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off!

Gr 4—6—A kid's world can sometimes be a scary place, from real-life terrors like deadly diseases to weird stuff like ghosts and monsters. But how many are really worth worrying about? This often-entertaining look at fears and phobias explores these creepy concepts. Each chapter focuses on a specific fear-provoking topic such as natural disasters, animal attacks, or accidents like ship and plane wrecks. The author provides scientific explanations for such worrisome phenomena as lightning and earthquakes and includes statistical details that point out the odds of actually experiencing any of the disasters. There is a particularly interesting section on odds and probabilities and how the human mind plays tricks with them to make comparatively rare occurrences seem more frequent. The writing style is breezy and conversational. Commonsense advice is mixed with light, sometimes sarcastic commentary. The author often includes personal accounts such as his unwise decision to eat raw chicken at a Japanese restaurant. Many of the chapters have a high gross-out quotient, which will certainly please the target audience. The illustrations are an intriguing mixture of photos-some dramatically staged-and amusing cartoon drawings. Unfortunately, the final chapter, "The Beyond," is not as well done as the rest of the book. Religious beliefs about life after death are overgeneralized and not always accurate. Murphy's reference to a supposed Native American belief in a Happy Hunting Ground is particularly egregious. In addition, some of the quotations used to introduce chapters cite adult works that are not appropriate for the intended audience of this title, from Stephen King's It (Penguin, 1986) to John Marshall's Social Phobia: From Shyness to Stage Fright (Basic Books, 1994).—Elaine E. Knight, Lincoln Elementary Schools, IL