Frankenstein's Hamster

Children who enjoy painting graffiti on train bridges, joyriding in unauthorized vehicles, spreading gossip or being obnoxious at parties had best beware. A variety of hideous accidents, ghoulish punishments and hair-raising scenes lie in store in this debut book. Griffiths uses good old-fashioned bogeymen and the sometimes gory consequences of misbehavior in her moralistic tales--stories of the sort that are whispered around campfires after the grownups have gone to bed. Scary and appropriately horrific more by inference than explicit description, these tales are sure to provide thrill seekers with many a pleasurable shudder. Ages 10-up. (May)