From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-An entertaining and occasionally informative collection of urban legends, celebrity rumors, scams, pranks, and hoaxes. Craughwell begins his introduction with a good working definition of the term "urban legend"-a demonstrably untrue story that uses humor or horror to teach a lesson about the consequences of disregarding societal taboos. He then notes that for most people the only real criterion is that the story is plausible, although patently false. The first chapter is devoted entirely to stories and legends that circulated following September 11. The author briefly discusses the psychology behind the origin of these tales and mentions that many of them were covered in a New York Times article, although no citation is provided. In fact, the lack of documentation throughout is the book's weakness. Since the volume contains items that sometimes show up as reference questions, such as the statue of a military hero on a horse indicating the manner of the hero's death by the number of hooves off the ground, some sort of explanation or source material is mandatory. However, as entertainment, the book succeeds. Teens will enjoy the variety of selections and may be surprised to find that they have been taken in by some of these absolutely true stories that happened to a friend of a friend of a friend.Jody Sharp, Harford County Public Library, MDCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
What's an urban legend? It's a story that gets passed around so frequently that no one really knows how it began. All we know is that the tale is so amusing, dark, coincidental or ironic that, whether it's true or not, we are dying to believe it--and pass it on.

In the successful tradition of Alligators in the Sewer and The Baby on the Car Roof, this all-new collection of over 200 urban legends offers the latest and greatest tales so weird and funny that they just have to be true. Includin the firemen who rescued a stranded cat and then ran over it; the baby born in flight who was given free air travel for life; the drug-test cheater who was caught when his urine sample revealed him to be pregnant.

Organized by genre, each story in The Cat in the Dryer runs one or two pages, and features possible variations and embellishments. Subjects range from famous people to disturbing pranks, from holiday nightmares to creepy stories, and from military misadventures to pet disasters.

About the Author
Thomas Craughwell is the author of nine books, including Alligators in the Sewer, The Baby on the Car Roof, Great Books for Every Book Lover, and Saints for Every Occasion. He has written the Book Lover's Page-a-Day(r) calendar since it first appeared in 1995, and his 50 States Fandex has sold over 500,000 copies. He lives in Bethel, Connecticut.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Funny, Frightening and Strange Tales -- That Could Be True! From scams, pranks and hoaxes to creepy coincidences and tales of just plain old bad luck, the hundreds of incredible stories inside this book will shock and amaze you. And even if you're not sure you believe what you read, these tales are so gripping, so surprising, and at times so downright frightening, you'll be dying to pass them on. Everyone's heard it: the story of the cat who took a nap in the clothes dryer, only to be carried out by his owner in a pile of clean towels a spin cycle later. Thankfully, the cat was still alive, and thanks to dryer sheets, completely static free! But whose cat was it, a friend of a friend's? Well then, you can be pretty sure that you're dealing with an urban legend.

Alternately fascinating, frightening, and amusing -- but always intriguing -- urban legends spring up in every corner of the country. They are often morality tales or warnings of how not to behave, couched in juicy, too-good-not-to-be-true anecdotes. And no matter how grotesque, horrifying or shocking, they always strike a note of reality, expressing the fears, anxieties and humanity of people in the modern age. What ties them together is their timeliness, plausibility and ultimately their ability to amuse.

In this latest collection of urban legends, you'll discover a treasure trove of unbelievable tales about the foods we eat and the pets we keep, of heroic acts and incredible coincidences. You'll encounter stories that circulated after the September 11 attacks that come to represent a new form of myth: the patriotic legend. The Cat in the Dryer collects every kind of urban legend out there, and often presents common variations on the endings. Dig in and discover the flip side of our collective unconscious, and who knows? You may find a story that happened to a friend of a friend of yours.

FROM THE CRITICS

School Library Journal