Above average collection of horror stories, featuring children as principle characters.

Some standouts are Brenda (Margaret St. Clair) written in 1953 and featuring a Romero-type zombie, The Idol of the Flies (Jane Rice) about a young boy wholly given to evil, The Interloper (Ramsay Campbell) about two British school boys who find a secret tunnel, Ray Bradbury’s horrifying The October Game, and The Doll Maker by Sarban, more of a dark fantasy and originally published in London by William H. Heinemann (a highly regarded firm with a catalog of books sought out by collectors), and others by Matheson, Derleth, and Bloch. One good story by Stephen Gallagher (Magpie), a writer I’ve never heard of before. Nursery Crimes was published in 1993; there are no duds and two or three fizzles, all copyrighted in the 1980s and written by the usual internecine suspects. ( )