Rating: 
Summary: LOVE THIS BOOK!
Review: I used to read this book all the time when I was in middle school. The stories are very disturbing and frightening. Not really a book for middle schoolers. It sure did keep me up nights. One really scary one was "The 11:59". I remember lying in my bed, dreading for that time to roll around on my alarm clock. I'm planning to buy this book. It's reasonably priced on this site. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: This book was great it deserves a lot more than 5 stars!!!!!
Review: The Dark-Thirty was great because of how McKissack told stories that were based true happenings in the world with racisim. I strongly suggest that any type of reader read this book. The pictures by Pinkney were brilliant, so dramatic. I loved it. The Legend of Pin Oak is the best story in it.
Rating:
Summary: Twilight terror tales!
Review: These are sure fire scary stories for the middle school set. The 11:59 and the woman in the snow are suspenseful. Each is just long enough to grab the reader but not be boring. The scope from justice for a murder to runaway slaves and evil amulets is satisfying.
Rating: 
Summary: Voodoo Gumbo--Zacherle would love this!
Review: This book consists of ten eerie tales of the supernatural--begging to be read Alone on "a dark and stormy night," or retold around a friendly campfire. These tales present Black protagonists from the slave era, throughout American history, right up to the present. The title refers to the half hour of semi-darkness which precedes true nightful--when all tales seem spookier because of the shadows and rustling of nocturnal creatures. The stories vary greatly in subject and style: slaves atempt to escape rather than be sold off, or they invoke ancient voodoo rituals to punish a cruel master. A callous bus driver gets a ghostly brand of justice; an old pullman porter tries to cheat death aboard the 11:59; a man uses ESP to try to
save his family. A distraught mother encounters a sasquatch; a little girl has an unreasonable terror of a monster in the chicken coop, and more. My personal favorite presentsa Nigerian legend about the Dark Women who tried to cheat a goddess; they exist solely to trick unwary moderns into inviting them into their homes, where they wreak havoc upon the unsuspecting tenants who naively think they are safe in the 90's. Only the Gingi can protect these hapless souls from such vindictive spirits. Like Dracula lore, which insists that the victim must cross the threshhold of his own free will, the evil visitor must receive an invitation before entering. An entertaining and chilling anthology--for those with a premonition of disaster. There are no references to Halloween, yet this book makes for perfect October reading. Are you brave enough to finish it? BOO!
Rating:
Summary: Voodoo Gumbo--Zacherle would love this!
Review: This book consists of ten eerie tales of the supernatural--begging to be read Alone on "a dark and stormy night," or retold around a friendly campfire. These tales present Black protagonists from the slave era, throughout American history, right up to the present. The title refers to the half hour of semi-darkness which precedes true nightful--when all tales seem spookier because of the shadows and rustling of nocturnal creatures. The stories vary greatly in subject and style: slaves atempt to escape rather than be sold off, or they invoke ancient voodoo rituals to punish a cruel master. A callous bus driver gets a ghostly brand of justice; an old pullman porter tries to cheat death aboard the 11:59; a man uses ESP to try to
save his family. A distraught mother encounters a sasquatch; a little girl has an unreasonable terror of a monster in the chicken coop, and more. My personal favorite presentsa Nigerian legend about the Dark Women who tried to cheat a goddess; they exist solely to trick unwary moderns into inviting them into their homes, where they wreak havoc upon the unsuspecting tenants who naively think they are safe in the 90's. Only the Gingi can protect these hapless souls from such vindictive spirits. Like Dracula lore, which insists that the victim must cross the threshhold of his own free will, the evil visitor must receive an invitation before entering. An entertaining and chilling anthology--for those with a premonition of disaster. There are no references to Halloween, yet this book makes for perfect October reading. Are you brave enough to finish it? BOO!
Rating:
Summary: Deserved the Awards
Review: This book received lots of awards and well-deserved them. The stories are simply told in a very straight-forward narrative. They are not spine-tingling, but more likely to make the reader look over his or her shoulder or jump at a sudden sound. Each story is prefaced with a note placing it in historical context. These brief notes contribute greatly to the richness of the tales. Great for Summer evenings, wonderful for Halloween, perfect for long winter nights--these stories open up world of fascination and questioning of the real. Recommended for kids in older grades (middle school and up).
Rating:
Summary: Still Excellent
Review: This was one of my favorite books as a child, and continues to be to this day. The lessons it teaches are wrapped in tales so entertaining I latched on to it for my entire life, despite my usual distaste for the genres associated with "Ghost Stories" or "Folk Tales." Finding it again here just reminded me of how much I loved it, and it will be added to the list of books to read to my children, in time.
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