Cajun Ghost Stories

My boys were probably around the 11 to 13 year old range when we listened to this book on tape. The musical cadence of the author's dialect, and the strange words and ghastly images, like "Fifolet" & "Rawhead" fascinated us, and still occasionally surface in my memory. The tape was heard once, returned to the library, and that was that...except that last night my now 21-year-old son called me from college to ask what the name of that tape was with the "Fifolet", etc. on it! I asked if he needed it for some project, and he said, no, he just thought it was cool and wanted to hear it again! So there you go for a recommendation. That a kid would remember for almost a decade a once-heard, barely-an-hour-long tape, and want to hear it again. Without really knowing the title or author, I did manage to find it, so he will be delighted!

We rented this cassette from our local library to take on a family vacation recently, and it proved to be a "monster hit" with our two sons, ages 11 and 7. The stories are wonderfully imaginative and just spooky enough to keep children's attention all the way through. J.J. Reneaux is an expert storyteller--her delivery, inflection, and style are masterful, indicating that she has practiced the nearly lost art of storytelling for long time. To make the presentation even better, there are expertly created special sound effects in the background, giving the stories a richer atmosphere than merely "telling" them could ever accomplish. Great tape!