Priestly's Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror

The spooky cover of this, reminiscent of Eward Gorey, will sell the book, which is a series of tales relating to objects in Uncle Montague's spooky old house. These are mildly scary (and mostly not gory), but the real punch comes at the end. I expected Edgar to be a bit more frightened by the general atmosphere! This reminds me vaguely of something, and I can't pin point just what. My students are always wanting scary stories, so I'll add this one.

Also read Strasser's Friends til the End, which was okay but somewhat dated. Usually, stories about cancer are from a girl's point of view, so this one is interesting (new, somewhat different student makes friends with soccer player, who stays by him through his stuggles with leukemia). It is rather dated, however. The description of the boy wearing plaid pants tells us right away that this is not a new book. Let this be a lesson to writer's-- don't describe clothing in too much detail!