Nothing screams creepy as much as a former amusement park, taken over by rust, weeds, and memories, or an old theater, where death d perhaps a restless spirit ill lingers. These entries in the Scary Places series will pique many children's curiosity with the strange and unknown. Each title uses double-page spreads to introduce 11 undeniably scary sites around the world. From the stock-market crash to Hurricane Katrina to the tragic derailment of roller-coaster cars, Abandoned Amusement Parks shows some of the many reasons amusement parks close forever. Vivid descriptions highlight the parks in their heyday, the state of their ruin, and even some hauntings. Modern and archival photos, as well as eerie superimposed images, add to the books' effect. Delightfully spooky.

After brief introductions, busy double-page spreads focus on specific sites, often with anecdotal reports of ghostly encounters. Though the hectic design--featuring photographs, illustrations, and text boxes set on blurry, eerie backgrounds--strains for spooky effect, the texts themselves focus (superficially) on facts while speculating on alleged paranormal activity. A world map showing the locations is appended. Reading list. Glos., ind.