DID YOU SAY GHOSTS?
by Richard Michelson & illustrated by Leonard Baskin
An anything-but-soothing bedtime rhyme for two voices: ``Everything will be all right./There aren't any ghosts in sight...'' ``GHOSTS! DID YOU SAY GHOSTS?'' ``There's no such thing as spooks or ghosts./I guarantee it...well, almost...'' In dark, thick colors and broad strokes, Baskin renders an array of supernatural creatures—witch, demon, gorgon, ghoul, even a ``slithy tove''—as shadowy shapes, not as ferocious as those in Imps, Demons, Hobgoblins, Witches, Fairies and Elves (1984), but larger and more melodramatically posed. Some are done up in ways that are almost comically crude, which, together with Michelson's teasing tone, gives young readers the option of laughing or shivering. (Picture book. 6-8)