Moaning Bones: African American Ghost Stories
Grade 3-6-Some stories lose too much of the essence that makes them ghostly or truly scary when they are diluted and abridged for younger readers. This is true for this collection of tales. Haskins acknowledges his sources, and they and others remain the best for this genre. Harry Middleton Hyatt's Hoodoo-Conjuration-Witchcraft-Rootwork (Western, 1970-74; o.p.) and Daryle Dance Cumber's Shuckin' and Jivin' (Indiana Univ., 1978) are adult in tone and flavor; therefore, choosing selections from them for a younger audience requires expurgating certain expressions, dialect, or haunting repetitious chants. Most children know scarier versions of the "Vanishing Hitchhiker" than Haskins's "Ghost in the Backseat." Patricia McKissack's The Dark-Thirty (Knopf, 1992) is an excellent collection of good ghost stories for children to read or storytellers to reference.Marie Wright, University Library, Indianapolis, INCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.