The Scary States of America: 50 Weird and Terrifying Stories Based on True Events by Michael Teitelbaum Ages 9-12 416 pages Delacorte July 2007 Paperback     Monsters, aliens and ghosts – oh my! Get ready for a terror-filled tour of our fifty states, as sinister and supernatural specters greet you on every page. Each chapter highlights a different state by first providing an interesting true fact. Next comes a fictional story, based on rumors and murmurs, which is guaranteed to give you shivers and shudders. Readers will be anxious to learn about the terrors that haunt their home states, giving this book a universal appeal. Each story is relatively short yet packed with pulse-racing power. The narrator of this tomb friendly-tome is a 12-year-old-boy named Jason Specter. As a self-appointed keeper of paranormal possibilities in this country, Jason issued a call for the creeps on his Web site. This book features fifty of his favorite stories, collected from people across America. Frightening and wacky, these pages tremble with spooky tales of walls weeping blood and vanishing victims. Just about every type of supernatural occurrence is represented, offering a spit-stopping assortment of horror. Some well known fright figures are present, like Bigfoot and the Jersey Devil, while some lesser-known players get in on the action as well. Some of these tales are truly outlandish or gross, but all of them elicit that deliciously scary sensation that makes up a good story. After visiting with the Skunk Ape from Florida or the Shadow People of Arkansas, readers will never travel down an interstate highway again without wondering if that breeze coming in the car window isn’t really the breath of some almost-forgotten phantom.   web reviews   Joyce Handzo/2007 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)