The Supernatural

School Library Journal

Gr 4 - 6 -- Ghosts features very short stories of international ghosts, demons, phantom vehicles, and kindly apparitions who warn of danger. None are particularly scary. Colored boxes feature anecdotes told in the present tense, while the text uses the past tense. Some photos are old-fashioned and blurry; some appear to be trick photography; others actually are trick photography, although they look colorized after the fact. Other contemporary illustrations are garish and bright. Cover art is lurid; its sensationalism will appeal to young fans of the macabre. The Supernatural offers a smattering of parapsychological topics that run the gamut from reincarnations to dowsing for both water and military land mines. Firewalking, Hindu pain avoidance, levitation, and flying monks are among the many subjects discussed, but none are covered in any detail. Both books leave the decision of whether to react as a skeptic or as a believer up to individual readers. Some children will love these, but the contents are tantalizingly brief and therefore somewhat unsatisfying. --Leslie Chamberlin, Napa City-County Library, CA