title: Spooky Stories for a Dark and Stormy Night
author: Alice Low
description: Featuring sharp-toothed yet ultimately benign monsters, round-headed children and a few nonthreatening witches and ghosts, the inimitable Wilson's art for this volume is playful rather than hair-raising. The same can be said of the bulk of the 19 stories. Included are folktales from a spectrum of countries, retold by such familiar writers as Isaac Bashevis Singer, Stephanie Calmenson and Alison Lurie; adaptations of a couple of classics (Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Charles Dickens's Captain Murderer); as well as more recent stories by Eric Weiner, Laurence Yep, Bruce Coville, Penelope Lively and others. Given this lineup, it is not surprising that the quality of the storytelling is consistently high. Several of the tales are a bit silly, but a handful are ideal for reading aloud-preferably on a dark and stormy night. Ages 8-up. <br />Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  ## **Chapter 1**
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/3chap2.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
     **I** t was a cold, dark November night and Alice and I were sitting by the
  kitchen fire with my master, the Spook. The weather had been getting steadily
  colder and I knew that any day now the Spook would decide it was time to set
  off for his 'winter house' on the bleak moor of Anglezarke.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    I was in no rush to go. I'd only been the Spook's apprentice since the
  spring and had never seen the Anglezarke house, but my curiosity certainly
  wasn't getting the better of me. I was warm and comfortable here in Chipenden
  and that's where I'd rather have spent the winter. I glanced up from the book
  of Latin verbs I was trying to learn and Alice caught my eye. She was sitting
  on a low stool close to the hearth, her face bathed in the warm glow of the
  fire. She smiled and I smiled back. Alice was the other reason I didn't want
  to leave Chipenden. She was the closest I'd