Doctor Asimov makes his usual, slightly apologetic, introduction to this anthology. Ray Bradbury gets another entry in this series, with his @homecoming', turning the view round completely, with the normal boy inadvertently suffering at the hands of his more unusual relatives. With monsters overlapping more into the science fiction field, my hit rate on the familiar authors goes up but it's Bradbury's story that really sticks with me, though Saki's ''Gabriel-Ernest' is also quite memorable. Stephen King's contribution takes us to his ''Salem's Lot' storyline and the fate of a motorist and his family one snowy night.

A theme that becomes more apparent as the series continues is the fact that the only thing that makes these 'Young xxxxxx' related to youth is the presence of a youngster in the story. ( )