Perfect to curl up with on a dark and stormy night, Passion and Poison also works well as a read-aloud and storytelling source thanks in part to the well-turned phrases. Del Negro includes notes on each story at the end of the book. I recently read "Hide and Seek" aloud at a scary stories event for 4th-8th graders and found it to be effectively creepy. The black, white, and red illustrations add to the spooky tone of the book. ( )