Super Scary Stories For Sleepovers #5

Grade 4-7-These books unashamedly deliver what fans of the genre want-grim situations, shocker endings, and plots that echo everything from B-movies to Edgar Allan Poe. There are a few flashes of originality here, like jewels hidden in a mummy's dusty wrappings; a colony of underwater vampires preys on careless scuba divers; a timid boy atones at last for the cowardice he displayed in a past life. In general, however, the selections follow the "just desserts" campfire-story format. Characters enter a dangerous situation, receive and ignore dire warnings about the consequences, and meet a hideous doom as a result. These volumes make no pretense of equaling the literary suspense of John Bellairs or the atmospheric horror of Stephen King.