"Imagine being all alone in a spooky graveyard at night..." Middle grade readers who are fascinated with the supernatural will enjoy the chilly thrills provided by this entry in the "Scary Places" series from Bearport Publishing. Author Dinah Williams introduces intrepid readers to the "creepy creatures of the night" whose remains are to be found in "11 spooky cemeteries." Each entry focuses on a single site, and its attendant spirit or legend. Staples of the supernatural, such as vampires and ghosts, are included here, as are lesser-known phantoms like the Pontianak of southeast Asia.

Williams tells her brief tales in simple language, which keeps the tone of each story from becoming too creepy. Questions within the text reach out to jolt the reader's imagination ("Could Mercy have become a vampire? Was she sucking the life out of Edwin?") into further engagement with the story. Like a good storyteller, she also warns readers under the spell of a story ("Don't let her get close!" ) but uses such exclamations sparingly.

This entertaining "travelogue" of ghastly sites employs good elements of design as well as engaging story-telling to keep the tone of this volume cheerfully spooky. Stock photos and photos from horror movies lend the work a feeling of "reality," although a few may be a little too scary for elementary students below fourth grade. The no-nonsense fonts are easy to read and appropriately sized. Blood-red chapter titles and accompanying introductory text are framed in a Victorian-looking gravestone motif featuring a winged skull. Sidebars are placed in a similar, more subdued, skull-and-bones frame. Brief identifications appear next to photos in a patch of hazy mist. The eye is drawn across each page by a subtle background of leafless trees.

Lending academic credence to Williams' efforts is the title-page reference to Troy Taylor, president of the American Ghost Society, whom Williams consulted for this work. Also included are a map of "Spooky Cemeteries Around the World," a glossary, bibliography, a brief list of books for further reading, and a recommendation to view the publisher's web site for online exploration of Scary Places. Highly recommended for middle-upper elementary libraries. ( )

According to its opening pages, "in this book, you'll meet a voodoo queen, ghosts who won't rest in peace, an ancient mummy, and other creepy creatures of the night."

Spooky Cemeteries is a compilation of short pieces on 11 of the world's most famously creepy burial grounds, including the Catacombs of France (home to 6 million skeletons and featured in the 39 Clues mystery, Maze of Bones), Tutankhamun's Tomb in Egypt, and Westminster Burying Grounds in Baltimore, Maryland, the final resting place of Edgar Allan Poe (whose 200th anniversary we celebrate this year).

More factual than fantastic, most entries contains the local legend or lore,

"She then turns into an ugly monster with long teeth and red eyes before killing them. She hides in the tall trees and flies through the air. Don't let her get close! ... Some people think that a Pontianak is nothing more than a large owl. The faces of these birds can look human when they swoop out of the darkness,"

actual photographs of the location, dramatized photos or artwork depicting the ghost or relevant artifacts, and a text box containing interesting facts,

"Most cemeteries in New Orleans have tombs where the dead can be buried above ground. Why? About half of the city is below sea level. If coffins were buried in the soggy ground, they would float up out of their graves."

A table of contents, map, glossary, bibliography, index, and suggested reading round out this scholarly look at an unscholarly topic. Spooky Cemeteries is part of the Scary Places series.

Spooky Cemeteries was the 2009 winner of the Children's Choice Book Awards 3rd and 4th Grade Book of the Year. A real kid-pleaser! Not too gory, but just spooky enough! ( )