A simply beautifully told spiritual adventure.

Over the years I stumbled across the fact that Alvin Schwartz wrote Superman during the strip's best time. But upon reading An Unlikely Prophet I was mystified by his translation of the Superman myth to a (almost?) real life situation. Schwartz is a master at dangling the real and the imaginary before us. Did all this really happen or is it a fiendishly clever work of fiction? Where did the lines cross? If, indeed, they crossed at all. Unlikely Prophet is the quintessential 'can't-put-down' book. It is a highly entertaining and, if you choose to believe the Tibetan mysticism, a very educational read. It will improve your geography, sociology, psychology and vocabulary. And it should raise Alvin Schwartz higher in the ranks of superior writers.

The book starts out grounded in reality, and then slowly becomes less grounded until it starts to fly. An enjoyable story and a fascinating belief structure fill the pages. Try it.

I enjoy reading this book to my 15 month old daughter at bedtime. She enjoys the poems and verses as well as the illustrations. I have heard many parts of this book in my childhood, and this brings back great memories. I would recommend this book to any parent whose child likes to be read to and to any parent who enjoys folk poetry and verses. I find as a parent, this book is easy to read to a child and both members benefit from it.

I am a 3rd Grade teacher. To help you fully realize how much kids love this book I'll tell you that it gets stolen every year! I've had to buy this book 3 years in a row!!! It is always my class' favorite book. It has a very humorous view and introduces children to poetry. A+!!!!

This book is great! I'm 22 now and I remember reading this in the elementary school library. I'd check it out again and again. I always thought this book was a creepy and fun example of strange superstitions that people followed through history. It's a shame that it's out of print!

One of my favorite books when I was a kid, I just "remembered" it the other day when my sister & I were arguing about superstitions. We both had checked it out from the school library...25 years or so ago!

I was able to find a copy, though it was out of print...thanks to Amazon's locater service!!

What a cleverly written children's picture book. Parents andteachers will enjoy reading this to their children as it will amuseand get children interested in reading. Children will want it read to them over and over again, until of course they gather interest in reading and read it themselves. My little brother didn't want to or wasn't interested in reading, until he picked up a copy of THERES A CARROT IN MY EAR!

This book is hysterical. All kids, and adults, will love it.

These short stories are absolutely hilarious. I recommend this book to beginning readers and also to parents with children to read to them. I remember laughing so hard I was doubled over when I first read this book! Reading can be such a wonderful experience and this book is a terrific example of quality children's literature.

A remarkable guy from Downtown, Known for reading his book upside down, Chose to stand on his head In his bed while he read And developed a permanet frown. A talkaty talker named Wade Took Tina to watch the parade, When he said, " Sweet miss-miss, Would you like a kiss-kiss?" She doused him with cold lemonade. A hot-air balloonist named Betty Flew over a sea of spagetti. It looked quite suspicious, But tasted delicious With Parameson cheese and confetti. There once was artist named Nallie, Who painted her cottage with jelly, And then on one shutter She spread peanut butter And slid down the stairs on her belly. A happy musican named Joe Went out play in the snow. He played up a storm To keep himself warm, While everyone shouted, "bravo!" A sleepy-time baby named Pammie Loves to sleep over with Grammie, Who bakes apple pies, And sings lullabies, And rocks her to sleep in her jammies.

How many languages do you think there are in the world? Well the answer is that there are countless languages worldwide! Every time every day people are inventing new ways to speak and lots of different sounds. This new book,The cats elbow and other secret languages has about one fiftieth of all the languages there are in the whole world. although the most common ones are split by their accent. In english is not split up by their accent, but in spanish, in spain the states are split up by their accents like in Galicia they speak a spanish version Gallego. Well the book only say one of the secret languages spoken between armies and cops. In world war two many countries spoke coded languages and sent messages that only that army knew so the enemies wouldn't understand. It has man interesting languages. I can bet that one of those languages in the book was used during battles or even one of the world wars. I recommend this book to people who read about the following authors or characters: Marvin Miller, Nancy Drew, Scooby doo, Encyclpedia Brown, Sherlock Holmes, and the author of The cats elbow and other secret languages. ........................................ so I read this book and I loved it because its one of those rare books that draws the reader in with the first paragraph into turning the pages until the end. I compare this book to like Codemaster one and two because codemaster shows you codes to code and decode messages written, but this book shows to SAY messages in another language sort of like a code.

These books were my obsession in the second grade. My favorite stories are: "Room for One More," "Harold," the one where the lady steals a liver from a dead body to feed her husband--only to have the body pay a visit to find it's lost organ, and the story of the woman who dies of the plague while staying in a hotel. (This is not meant to slag any of the other stories) However, since I have yet to purchase this box set, I can only hope they're included.

The "Scary Stories" series came to my mind a week ago when I was trying to sleep, and I had to turn the lights on when I remembered the details of the stories. Mind you, I'm 19! Nothing--not Stephen King or Dean Koontz--has ever scared me so much. "Harold" has to be my favorite story of all.

These book taught me the power of words and to appreciate classic horror, at an early age. The stories may seem a little graphic for children, but I have no problem with giving them to my own if I decide to become a father someday.

I remember when I got the first book of the series. I was little and looking through some old books my brother wanted to give away. I found it and kept it, although I didn't read it for a long time, the cover scared the b'geezus out of me. When I did read it, around the third grade or so, I loved it. It frightened the heck out of me and gave me nightmares. The most fun I had out of the book was sharing it with people, friends, cousins, ect. When I bought the rest of the series, everyone wanted to read them at SRR and I lent them out at a quarter each (hey, 75cents back then could buy an ice cream bar and a nutty buddy!). My mother always looked at me weird when she saw the books, she was like "how could you read that stuff?" and her and my dad would sit me down and have talks with me on how they didn't want me too interested in the occult or reading "books like that". Although I just ignored them, after all, they were the ones who bought me the books in the first place and continued to let me buy things like that, even though they were the ones who paid and took it to the checkout! Aren't parents funny?

As a kid I loved sitting around reading these, sometimes by myself tucked away in a dark, musty corner, or better yet, on Halloween with friends. OK, so the stories weren't really all that scary, but they are a lot of fun. The illustrations are morbid and occasionally gruesome, and really lend to the atmosphere of "terror." There are tons of other, scarier books on the market, sure, but these are a lot of fun for parents and kids alike. No murdered cheerleaders à la R.L. Stine. Some of my favourite moments include the voice moaning out "Bloody fingers...." and the hippie is just, like, "Get a band-aid, man!" and the Viper ("I'm here to vash and vipe the vindows").

These stories were collected from folklore and retold by Alvin Swartz. And you'll find all types of timeless, classic tales in here. Ghost stories, graverobber stories, tales of people raised by wild animals, zombie stories, humourous stories, even modern tales based on urban legends. Each book is prefaced with some history, and their are annoted sources and extensive bibliographies.

There are loads of creepy, morbid, and yes, scary illustrations throughout the book in ink and grey watercolour...very gravelike. Some of them still creep me out today years later. Some of them might give you nightmares and resurface in front of you when you're all alone in the dark.

To make a scary atmosphere try reading these on a dark, rainy, preferably stormy night by flashlight. Put on Danny Elfman's creepy, creepy soundtrack to "Sleepy Hollow." Listen for unexplained crashes, creaks, and moans in between crashes of thunder...read some more...you will end up scared in the end.

Scary Stories 3 offers up more tales of terror and madness, but it seems to me Schwartz has gone to the urban legends well for what should be the last time. While many of the stories are still suspenseful and scary, the same impact does not hold up against the first two volumes. Gammell's artwork is still wonderfully morbid, but I felt like I was reading stories which were only being written for another paycheck. Not as much heart. Don't get me wrong, I did still enjoy the book and WOULD recommend it to other readers, but feel, unfortunately, that a fourth volume would hold little for horror fans of all ages. Then again, maybe I just grew up.

I have collected all types of scary stories books throughout my childhood and this series ( all 3 books ) has to be the best collection ive ever read. I recently read this book again just to see how it would be 10 yrs later and see if the storys were still as good as i remembered and it was. I somehow lost this book between then n now and last time i read it i was about 10 or 11 so i got another copy and it's still as good as then. This book is excellent for children or teenagers and has some really classic scary stories in it and brilliant illustrations. Kids will find these illustrations very creepy and love the storys. I recomend this book to kids or any age group -its very fun to read and even has some creepy songs in some of the books.

This is a wonderful collection of urban legends and reworkings of regional ghost stories. The stand out of the collection is the story of "Harold." Even though this book is mostly for older kids, "Harold" will definitely leave even adults unnerved.You won't be able to look at a scarecrow without being spooked for weeks after reading the story. This book offers scary stories that aren't gross and don't have some sort of underlying agenda. It's just plain fun.

Ghosts

Alvin Schwartz

Reading level: 1-3

Your review: This is a good book! I would recommend it. It has really funny illustrations and really good ones too! It isn't a chapter book but it does have 7 funny but not scary stories about ghosts!

Sure, read it to your kids at bedtime and you will take a day off the next day to clean their beds (NOT speaking from my personal experience, though).

A collection of several short stories about ghosts, all of them have a little surprising or twisting ending. The book completes with a short story to tell your kids what to do to scare off a ghost if they run into one.

Make sure to ask your kids to use the bathroom before bedtime, or they might fail to scare off the ghosts that cause bedwetting.

Youngest age to read to is probably about 3+ years old.

When my son read this book it was the first time ever that he read past his required 20 minutes and actually finished the book! He loved the scary tone, but not too scary for a child.