(2) YA Illustrated by Dave Shelton. This unsettling collection of eight ghost stories, framed by a ninth, will surely delight fans of the eerie and the macabre. A boy boards the wrong train and, lost, gets off at the next stop; he's soon joined by an old man who begins to tell a series of creepy stories. De Quidt gradually escalates the tension until a final, gut-wrenching twist.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2017

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Gary Blythe. Toymaker Menschenmacher chillingly transplants a sparrow's living heart into a wind-up toy. Meanwhile, protagonist Mathias, after receiving a deathbed gift from his conjurer grandfather, barely survives a slew of hair-raising adventures. The story's action is vividly narrated, its characters powerfully imagined, the scenario intriguing. Its conclusion is bleak, but with such unresolved issues as Mathias's true identity, a sequel seems indicated.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2010