The Best Ghost Stories Ever is a great little primer of vintage ghost stories aimed at kids, who might not otherwise be exposed to fiction of this type. Even adults whose acquaintance with horror extends no further than Stephen King and Dean Koontz would benefit from reading this book cover to cover. From Poe ("The Masque of the Red Death") to Henry James ("The Romance of Certain Old Clothes"), from Charlotte Perkins Gilman ("The Yellow Wallpaper") to W.W. Jacobs ("The Monkey's Paw"), many of the acknowledged masters of the form are represented here. My only quibble is that there is not now, nor has there ever been, a ghost story author named Algernon Blackwell. "The Empty House"--a classic tale of ghostly phenomena witnessed by two astonished human observers--was, of course, written by Algernon Blackwood. An error of this magnitude (Blackwood wrote what is generally considered the single greatest horror story in the English language, "The Willows") ought to have been corrected by now. ( )