Gr 3–4—Seven or eight brief accounts in each title introduce legendary and real creatures and places from around the world. ("The ghost of a boy dressed in blue wakes visitors with his screams. A ghostly woman appears in the pantry.") The haunting of England's Chillingham Castle and many other subjects here are not very high on the scary scale, though there are a few creepy stories.
Ghosts includes Al Capone playing a banjo, the Flying Dutchman, and George Washington. Snake Island in Brazil, Malaysia's bat-and-centipede-filled Gomantong Cave, and the Paris Catacombs are covered in
Places. The yeti, bunyip, chupacabara, and mythical Minotaur are found in
Monsters.
Stories introduce folktales, urban legends, poltergeists, and UFOs. Five to eight sentences of text and facing photographs are inset with word definitions andm bits of explanation.
This series may appeal to young readers with a precocious taste for the ghoulish. Ghosts is pretty straightforward, but Places is an odd combination of real locations that contain frightening beasts (e.g. venomous golden lancehead vipers on Brazil's Snake Island) and haunted places such as England's Chillingham Castle. Stock photos, brief sidebars, and defined highlighted words appear on each "super scary" spread. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these First Facts: Super Scary Stuff titles: Super Scary Ghosts and Super Scary Places.
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