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The Dark-Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural

Book Summary

Reviewed byMatt Berman
Ten supernaturally tinged short stories from the African-American tradition span the period from pre-Civil War to modern times. Each begins with an author's note and contains a black-and-white scratchboard illustration by Brian Pinkney.

Stories include a man lynched by the KKK who exacts revenge from beyond the grave, a Pullman Porter trying to avoid the final all-aboard, a woman who refuses to believe in the evil spirit haunting her family, and a woman denied a bus ride whose ghost keeps on trying to ride.

Is It Any Good?

4

Most of the stories in THE DARK-THIRTY: SOUTHERN TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL are gripping. The supernatural element will draw in young readers, and the historical context may lead them to want to know more about the periods in which the stories are set. Veteran author Patricia McKissack has a straight-ahead prose style that grabs the reader from the start of each story. She does best with the stories that arise from a melding of history and tradition, rather than, say, the silliness of a story such as "Boo Mama," which involves a secret utopian civilization of Sasquatches.

Brian Pinkney's scratchboard illustrations are striking without interfering with the reader's own visualization of the scenes.

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