From School Library Journal
Gr 8 Up-The supernatural takes a backseat in this anthology of terror tales. While a number of the stories do include ghosts, witches, and otherworldly beings, the horror is always rooted in the nightmares of teen life-gang initiations, gun deaths, and the cruelty of cliques. Even though the unnatural may be involved, there is always a connection to teen angst. A girl meets her dead best friend each night at the cemetery, but wonders how to tell the ghost that she is dating her former boyfriend. A boy pursues the gun dealer who sold the cursed handgun that his brother used in a double killing. A young witch struggles to retain her own identity as she performs a ritual demanded by her dead grandmother. The writing style is dark and suspenseful with the occasional touch of grim humor, and several of the stories contain graphic violence. All of the selections maintain their intended mood, and characterization and plot development are good. Contributors include Ed Gorman, Joe R. Lansdale, and other noted adult and young adult authors of the genre.-Elaine E. Knight, Lincoln Elementary Schools, ILCopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 8-12. Teens love scary stories, and the 15 tales here aren't only for teens, they're about young people, too. Subjects include a boy for whom puberty is literally beastly, a haunted laptop computer, and the rite of choosing teams in gym class. As with most anthologies, the quality varies; also, while some of these stories would be appropriate for middle-school readers, others feature characters, language, and situations (such as a spectral attempted rape) better suited to a more mature audience. A handful of the authors represented will be familiar to many YAs (Nancy Etchemendy, Monica Hughes, Tim Wynne-Jones); others will be recognized by a more select group of horror enthusiasts. Catherine Andronik
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
What scares you? Is it vampires and werewolves, or the terror that rises from the darkness of everyday life?

Be Afraid! gathers fifteen stories, twelve of them original, by award-winning authors from both the horror and young adult fields in an anthology in which the shivers are as familiar as the touch of a cold hand on the back of your neck.

Be afraid of an innocent-looking doll. Be afraid for the changes that occur to a young boy as he matures into adulthood. Be afraid for a girl who is teased by her schoolmates for having a scar that has ruined her otherwise pretty face. The stories take everyday situations and recast them in a scary and unforgettable light.

Edited by Edo van Belkom, Be Afraid! features tales by international award-winning and bestselling authors, including Robert J. Sawyer, Monica Hughes, Tim Wynne-Jones, Ed Greenwood, Nancy Kilpatrick, Joe R. Lansdale, Ed Gorman, Steve Rasnic Tem, and Richard Laymon as well as a host of exciting new writers.

From the Inside Flap
What scares you? Is it vampires and werewolves, or the terror that rises from the darkness of everyday life?

Be Afraid! gathers fifteen stories, twelve of them original, by award-winning authors from both the horror and young adult fields in an anthology in which the shivers are as familiar as the touch of a cold hand on the back of your neck.

Be afraid of an innocent-looking doll. Be afraid for the changes that occur to a young boy as he matures into adulthood. Be afraid for a girl who is teased by her schoolmates for having a scar that has ruined her otherwise pretty face. The stories take everyday situations and recast them in a scary and unforgettable light.

Edited by Edo van Belkom, Be Afraid! features tales by international award-winning and bestselling authors, including Robert J. Sawyer, Monica Hughes, Tim Wynne-Jones, Ed Greenwood, Nancy Kilpatrick, Joe R. Lansdale, Ed Gorman, Steve Rasnic Tem, and Richard Laymon as well as a host of exciting new writers.

About the Author
Bram Stoker and Aurora Award winner Edo van Belkom is the author of 200 stories of horror, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. In addition to winning the 1997 Stoker Award from the Horror Writers Association for “Rat Food” (co-authored with David Nickle), he won the Aurora Award (Canada's top prize for speculative writing) in 1999 for the short story, “Hockey's Night in Canada.”

As an editor, he has four anthologies to his credit, The Aurora Awards, Northern Horror and Be Afraid! (A Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book of the Year finalist) and Be Very Afraid! (Tundra Books, October 2002). Edo van Belkom is also the author of “Mark Dalton: Owner/Operator” an on-going adventure serial published monthly in Truck News since 1999.

Born in Toronto in 1962, van Belkom graduated from York University with an honors degree in Creative Writing. He then worked as a daily newspaper sports and police reporter for five years before becoming a full-time freelance writer in 1992. Since then he has done a wide variety of writing-related work ranging from trivia questions to book reviews, opinion pieces on professional wrestling to speeches and special letters for Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman. As a teacher, he has taught short story writing for the Peel Board of Education, been an instructor at Sheridan College, and has lectured on horror and fantasy writing at the University of Toronto and Ryerson Polytechnic University. He has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as Open Mike, Off the Record, Book Television, Imprint and Metro Morning, and was the first movie host on SCREAM, Canada's all-horror television channel. A frequent guest speaker and panelists at writing conferences and conventions in Canada and the United States, Edo was Toastmaster of the 1997 World Horror Convention in Niagara Falls, New York, and co-host of the 2001 Bram Stoker Awards in Seattle, Washington.

He lives in Brampton, Ontario, with his wife Roberta and son Luke.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

What scares you? Is it vampires and werewolves, or the terror that rises from the darkness of everyday life?

Be Afraid! gathers fifteen stories, twelve of them original, by award-winning authors from both the horror and young adult fields in an anthology in which the shivers are as familiar as the touch of a cold hand on the back of your neck.

Be afraid of an innocent-looking doll. Be afraid for the changes that occur to a young boy as he matures into adulthood. Be afraid for a girl who is teased by her schoolmates for having a scar that has ruined her otherwise pretty face. The stories take everyday situations and recast them in a scary and unforgettable light.

Edited by Edo van Belkom, Be Afraid! features tales by international award-winning and bestselling authors, including Robert J. Sawyer, Monica Hughes, Tim Wynne-Jones, Ed Greenwood, Nancy Kilpatrick, Joe R. Lansdale, Ed Gorman, Steve Rasnic Tem, and Richard Laymon as well as a host of exciting new writers.

FROM THE CRITICS

VOYA

Selector and contributor van Belkom correctly writes in his preface that "horror is not about monsters￯﾿ﾽit's about people's personal fears and emotions." Most of these fifteen short stories feature normal teens in common situations￯﾿ﾽa boy worried about maturation, another selected last for gym, a girl doll-shopping for her sister, and another dealing with a stepbrother after parental remarriage. These tales are not frightening￯﾿ﾽuntil the last page, which provides a delicious, horrifying twist causing one to reevaluate the story as well as to ponder it repeatedly. These stories are for thinkers, and readers will go through subsequent narratives faster to reach their conclusions. Endings are not telegraphed and become a shivery surprise. Most of these tales are reprints that previously appeared in such a variety of materials that they likely will be unfamiliar to even rabid mystery/suspense fans. Several are by noted writers for young adults, such as Monica Hughes and Tim Wynne-Jones. The rest are from award-winning authors for adults. Author information is supplied at the end of the book. All stories involve the supernatural, particularly strong in Nancy Kilpatrick's Old One/New One, which shows a teen witch casting spells, and Scott Nicholson's In the Heart of November, a story about a female visiting her (dead) best friend at a cemetery. None, however, promotes the supernatural; instead, this aspect provides the end twist of horror. This collection is for middle school students through adults who enjoy sophisticated, scary tales requiring attention￯﾿ﾽthen demanding reflection. They would be perfect for reading aloud and discussing afterwards. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P M S (Hard to imagine itbeing any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2000, Tundra/McClelland & Stewart, 178p, Trade pb. Ages 12 to 14. Reviewer: Lisa Spiegel VOYA, February 2001 (Vol. 23, No.6)

KLIATT

This unusual collection of stories is designed to make readers wary of the ordinary events happening in their own bodies or in ordinary occurrences. For instance, the dread of being picked last in gym class is a very real fear, and described in one of the stories in a way that will comfort as well as horrify. These stories are about such real-life dramas that happen on a daily basis. They give credibility to the terrors of actual living experiences. KLIATT Codes: JS—Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2000, McClelland & Stewart/Tundra Books, 178p, 20cm, $6.95. Ages 13 to 18. Reviewer: Sherri Forgash Ginsberg; Duke School for Children, Chapel Hill, NC January 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 1)

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