Scream and Scream Again!: A Horror-Mystery Anthology

Gr 4–6—This horror-mystery anthology features 20 never-before-published short stories from members of the Mystery Writers of America, including Chris Grabenstein, Heather Graham, and Bruce Hale. Each story has a caveat: it must begin and end with a scream. Most of the stories within are standard children's horror fare, offering more shrieks of mirth than horror—a shapeshifter attacks children as a shark, a supposedly haunted house scares the pants off of a father and son when it turns out it's infested with a zombie, a town is overrun by squirrels—but there are a few stories nestled in that truly terrify. A harmless attempt to create the best haunted Halloween house on the block results in summoning a demon. A girl receives a series of mysterious texts from an unknown number with the area code 666. With the balance between playful horror and truly spine-tingling spookiness, Stine—who also contributes a story about a pair of siblings that deal with bullies in an unconventional manner—pulls together a comprehensive introduction to the horror genre for kids, much as he has done for years with "Goosebumps."