Unexpected: 11 Mysterious Stories

by Laura E. Williams (Editor and Contributor), Bruce Coville (Contributor), Peter Lerangis (Contributor)

An Introduction by the editor and 11 stories. An eerie house filled with forgotten treasures... A young detective from the future...A miniature village that feels like home... A momabducted by trolls...
These are just a few of the eleven mysterious encounters conjured up by some of today's most popular and acclaimed authors.

Contents:

'Loser' by Peter Lerangis
'Little Time' by Gail Carson Levine
'Max, the Hand, and Me' by Heidi E.Y. Stemple and Jane Yolen
'Baby from Outer Space' by Norma Fox Mazer
'Who Broke Harry's Head?' by Graham Salisbury
'The Troddler' Bruce Coville
'Infinity Jinx' by Margaret Peterson Haddix
'Marked for Death' by Will Weaver
'The Telltale Croak' by Laura E. Williams
'Dear, Dear Kitty' by Marion Dane Bauer
'Sleuth 2500' by Dian Curtis Regan

Genres: Mystery, Childrens, Anthologies

Unknown Binding

First published October 24, 2005

About the author

Laura E. Williams is the author of Up a Creek and Behind the Bedroom Wall, which was named a Jane Addams Peace Award Honor Book. She lives in West Hartford, Connecticut.

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the stories are very fun!

[Angelique Polonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a good book. Definitely a good book for a child in school. It’s a fun read that doesn’t take too much focus as there aren’t a lot of characters and the stories are straight forward.

[Izzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in middle school and was delighted to find it again. Truly a blast to read!

[Agus Trk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creo que ya no se edita más. Una lastima porque es una antología excelente, suprema. Lo tengo todo roto porque lo leí muchísimas veces. Un cuento mejor que el otro. Mi favorito es Loser, porque nada es lo que parece.

[Garie Chrismer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was kinda unexpected … good read
Makes me want to continue each short story 😊

[Angie Titus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed all of these books except one about hunting (I have no idea why this one was in this book; it had no mysterious elements) and one with dying cats. The rest were interesting and intriguing.

[Briauna Hollingsworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book whenever I want to read a simple 30-page story. I open it up to the first story I see and I read on from there. Having read it so many times, I can usually just read from the middle of the story since I already understand the plot. I have read the whole book ALL the way through only about 3 times. My favorite of the 11 stories is probably the "Marked for Death" story. It's a story about a girl who goes hunting with her father. She has waited years for the trip and now, her father brings an orphan boy on the trip. There is a hunting accident and well, I don't want to spoil it. Another one I enjoyed is "Little Time"- this story is where the dog on the cover came from. This is a great read for 5th-6th graders and/or everyone who just wants to curl up with a book for a couple minutes. I am not a fan of short books like this so I didn't give it 5 stars. Some of the stories are just a little overdone but as far as story quality- some of these short stories should be made into actual 200-page books or something. The quality and structure of the stories allows me to rate this book at 3 stars.

[Lauren W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Mystery
Length:291
Author: Laura E. Williams
Date Finished: November 4

This book has 11 different mystery stories. One of them which is my favorite is called "Max, the Hand, and Me." This story is about a family going to there grandparents beach house on Myrtle Beach. One day this family went to the beach together and found a hand laying on the beach. This hand had only one finger which was the pointer. Later on that day the family had been looking at the news paper. It said that a famous country singer was robbed and the person broke into his dressing room and took his foot and hand. The family thought that the hand must have been his so they went to the producers to show them what they had found.


I like this book because at times one story would get really boring and pretty soon it would be over but it would have a shocking ending. I also liked this book because you could read different types of short mysteries in just one book! I really like this book and recommend it to people who like to read mysteries!

[Shelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all these stories hit the mark with me, but I did enjoy the read. It was easy to finish--a quick read.

I picked up the book because it has a story by my favorite author, Bruce Covile. But surprisingly my favorite story wasn't his. My favorite story was "Dear, Dear Kitty" by Marion Dane Bauer. Even though it was very short, it formed a lasting impression on me with powerful emotions and I remember it the clearest of the stories. ("Max, the Hand, and Me" was my second favorite, also filled with very memorable images.)

My least favorite story was "The Telltale Croak" by Laura E. Williams. My writing professor in college warned me once that if you go out of your way to trick your reader in the beginning, they are going to feel cheated and turned off by the end of the story when they see you've used words to purposely mislead you. Without spoiling too much, this was done in this story. What could have been clever wordplay if it was slightly less heavy-handed turned out feeling like a cheat.

[Johnny Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Closer to 3.5. When great young adult authors get together to write a collection of short stories, you end up with a pretty good book. These stories are "Mysterious" meaning odd not so much creepy. Every story has a note from the author following it and then a short description of the author. Two of the notes from the author were much darker than the actual stories. Troddler may have been my favorite short story.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eleven very different stories, but well worth the read -- especially for tweens or teens. Or even forty-something year-olds who like to delve into kids stories. I could easily see my middle school students grabbing this book, or their younger brothers or sisters. The author list is impressive: Gail Carson Levine, Bruce Coville, Norma Fox Mazer to name a few. Definitely recommend for someone looking for mysteries with a twist of horror, science fiction, fantasy, real life, and death.

[Brooklyn Rasmussen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved every story in this book. I liked how each story was wrote by a different author so people can see if they like that authors way of writing or not. I also like that each story was only twenty-one pages long so that you got interested in the story but it wasn't really long so if people didn't like the story they only had to read twenty-one pages instead of the whole book.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories were quite interesting and definitely mysterious. The different authors all have different ways of writing and, because of that, each story is very unique. They were each suspenseful and end on a cliff hanger. Many of them I would read a full book about. I would rate this book 4.5/5 stars and recommend it to anyone who likes mysteries.

[Stefan Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

this fictional mystry is fantastic for a quick read through 11 different stories I would highly reccomend it as there is futuristic technology classic cars and some freaky stuff its got everything if you like a good read then read this.

[Yesol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book because it is a mystery book but also has some horror in it and because it has a lot of great imaginations in it. I truly recommend this book to any aged people that like mysterious stories but also a little bit of horror stories.

[William K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-read this stories book.

[Priya]

CREEPY..... but not scary......I think this is definitely good for the short stories part of Independent Reading for Mrs. Brown.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice to read something childish... :P

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5