Dark, cold evenings mean ghostly films on TV and a hankering for spine-chilling reads. Robert Lawrence Stine, best known for the Goosebumps stories and his more recent series, The Nightmare Room, has produced The Haunting Hour (Collins Children’s Books pound;6.99), a short-story collection illustrated by big-name graphic artists such as Art Spiegelman and Joe Rivera.
The tales are less formulaic than the Nightmare Room stories (of which Collins has recently published three in one volume, Triple Chill 2 at pound;5.99), with more edge, depth, resonance and variety. For example, “TheJ Hallowe’en Dance” is a tale about two boys who escape a younger sister’s Hallowe’en party to find themselves in the middle of a real after-life knees-up. It is vastly different from “How to Bargain with a Dragon”, a fantasy story about a poor boy who out-manoeuvres a dragon master, but is just as compelling.
Macmillan has started an excellent Shock Shop series for eight-year-olds and above, using quality writers. Jenny Nimmo, for example, has contributed The Bodigulpa (pound;9.99), a dark tale of a nasty grandpa who gets up to ever nastier things in his greenhouse, with light, characterful touches and some comedy.
Stealaway, by K M Peyton (pound;9.99), is the rich and fast-moving tale of Nicky, who is haunted by ancient bloody Scottish border feuds when he moves into Bloodybow Castle with his mother, a horse trainer.
Oxford University Press has issued small-format editions of its graphic Jnovel retellings of three classic chillers. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles and Robert Louis Stephenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde have been skilfully adapted and illustrated by Chris Mould. These editions all retain the quality of language of the original text and present the meat of each story in highly readable form.
The illustrations - calligraphic, wiry and expressive drawings in a style with the appeal of Ralph Steadman - are a fine accompaniment to the drama. Superb value at pound;3.99 each.
