Reference Reviews

Reference for Students

Urban Legends: A Collection of International Tall Tales and Terrors. Edited by Gillian Bennet and Paul Smith. Westport, Conn.: Greenwod Pres, 2007. 1 vol. 349 p. $85.00. ISBN-10: 0-313-33952-X; ISBN-13: 978-0-313-33952-3.

Studying urban legends may encourage students to think critically about information found in questionable resources such as the Web. Chapters include "City Life" beginning with the standard, "Alligators in the Sewers," "Horror," "Accidents, Fate, and Chance," "The Body and Diseases," "Animals," "Sex and Nudity," "Merchandise," "Murder, Death, and Burial" and "The Supernatural." Chapters have brief introductions and each legend is discussed with an example and suggestions for further reading. Appendixes include "A Provisional List of Urban Legends in Film and Literature," further reading and online resources, the "Urban Legend Title Index" and three indexes, "Urban Legends on Film," "…in Literature" and a subject index. This provides excellent examples of carefully researched and reported information about tall tales.