THE PENGUIN BOOK OF WITCHES AND WARLOCKS,...

THE PENGUIN BOOK OF WITCHES AND WARLOCKS, selected by Marvin Kaye (Penguin: $10.95). This rather haphazard collection of tales about things that do worse than go bump in the night offers some engagingly eerie reading. H. G. Wells and L. Frank Baum take gently charming views of the supernatural in “The Magic Shop” and “The Tiger’s Eye.” Ray Bradbury writes affectionately about the telepathic travels of Cecy, the April Witch of the supernatural Elliott family, while Nathaniel Hawthorne unmasks the outwardly pious inhabitants of colonial New England in “Young Goodman Brown.” Although Kaye has padded the book with a number of unimpressive sci-fi/fantasy stories (including Isaac Asimov’s ill-advised attempt at improving one of W. S. Gilbert’s libretti), parents who disapprove of the sugary risks of trick-or-treating might consider reading these stories aloud as an alternate Halloween activity.