I love all of Brian Jacques’ work. I especially enjoyed his mastery of Storytelling via audiobook

A great book for younger teens.
I read it when I was younger and enjoyed reading this again.

it was a awesome book,the tales were really good but not to scary.

This has some short stories that I like to read aloud to my students.

Creepy, Strange and Weird...but I liked it! ( ; -Olivia

Of the two collections of original scary stories that Brian Jacques penned during his writing career, Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales is the better offering. Brian Jacques was at the height of his game when this book released in 1991, having in the previous five years come out with the first three installments in the Redwall series (Redwall, Mossflower and Mattimeo), and the fact that he was "in the zone" as a writer throughout this time period is evident in everything he wrote. Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales is a good mix of stories strange, eerie and sometimes even very funny, and a few of them stand out particularly well as perhaps having had the potential to be expanded into excellent full-length novels.

Of the seven stories on display in this collection, I would mention two as being especially good, and close enough to each other in terms of quality that designating one of the two as better might be splitting hairs. The first is the tale that leads off the book, The Fate of Thomas P. Kanne. A thirteen-year-old graffiti artist of high intelligence enjoys doing the town every so often, spray-painting his signature everywhere he goes and thereby challenging the police and any other concerned authority figures to catch him if they can. One of his favorite places to haunt is the Middlechester Museum, but he meets someone capable of finally taking him on in an evenly matched battle of wits when the museum's caretaker attendant, Mr. Bausin, makes it his personal mission to end the reign of the "Phantom Snake". However, there's much more here than meets the eye...

The second of the two best tales, and perhaps the finest out of all seven if I were called upon to make a choice, is The Sad History of Gilly Bodkin. Set all the way back in the 1600s, a lad named Gilly meets a tragic accidental end one day as he begs for a piece of candy from one of the four daughters of the landowner for whom his father works. Sadly, Gilly's request for a sugar stick isn't granted by the daughter before he suffers his fatal accident, and thus begins a bit of unfinished business for Gilly that will sober us in its sheer scope and create some of the more memorable moments of the entire collection of ghostly tales.

Brian Jacques has done some solid work in the creation of these seven stories. It's never easy to come up with truly original ghost stories that aren't just twists on famous tales that have been told many times before, but Brian Jacques succeeds in doing exactly that, and doing it well. On the whole, I would at the very least consider giving two and a half stars to Seven Strange and Ghostly Tales.

Fun juvenile anthology reveals a lot about today's youth. I'll have a more complete review when I finish it.

Update Jan/2008 - This was REALLY clever. I was totally impressed with the writing and storytelling. He had some great stories that were incredibly creative and unpredictable. I've read so many creeping tales that I read them now to see if I can predict the ending, and there were several in here that I felt were new and unique even though the book is a couple of years old.

I know that Brian Jacques has written a bunch of other stuff and I'm thinking about reading some more.

Very cool, short spooky, sometimes funny read. I loved the 1st story. That kids mom

Each tale was cleverly crafted with just enough creepiness to keep it with me. I might reflect back on some of these from time to time, or forget them entirely as time goes on. These tales are meant for a younger audience to get the intended effect, and it was a nice surprise to see that some of these stories had semi-happy endings.

One of those books that is a "quick read" or a book that I read to "get it over with".

The author, Brian Jacques, narrated his scary tales, which I found delightful. Altho Mr. Jacques writes books aimed at juveniles, he is one of my favorite authors.

I loved that each story was unique and interesting, utilizing elements of the supernatural (ghosts, vampires, the devil etc.)

I liked that each story has comedic to happy twist as to not spook the reader entirely but some did make me shudder with fear.

I love the first, super-creepy story!