Recommended by Leo, head of the library's Technology Department.

Check our other Fave Five lists, too!

Sounds of Silence

by Simon & Garfunkel
Hello darkness, my old friend. Ive come to talk with you again. So begins the title cut from Simon and Garfunkles classic album, Sounds of Silence. Much of this CD contemplates lifes grey if not darker side, including: "The Sounds of Silence," "Kathy's Song," "Somewhere They Can't Find Me," "Richard Cory," "A Most Peculiar Man," "April Come She Will" and "I am a Rock." According to Epicurus, reflection is one of the three key ingredients of a happy life. Though dark, these songs provide a wonderful soundtrack for contemplation, and harkens back to a day when popular music was not nearly so formulaic as we find it now.

Where the Wild Things Are

by Maurice Sendak
A naughty little boy, sent to bed without his supper, sails to the land of the wild things where he becomes their king. The creatures that populate this engaging story line demonstrate Sendaks vivid, graphical imagination. It is the first childrens book that made me sit up and take notice of the quality of art involved in the genre. The book is also featured in The Maurice Sendak Library, a video documentary on Maurice Sendak's life and writings.

Things That Go Bump in the Night: A Collection of Original Stories

edited by Jane Yolen and Martin H. Greenberg
FEARS: They come in different shapes and sizes. This collection of 18 Childrens stories about the noises, dreams and shadows of the night that frighten and beguile the imagination, weaves fantasy and reality, asking: Is it really just your imagination?

Things That Go Bump in the Night: How to Help Children Resolve Their Natural Fears

by Paul Warren and Frank Minirth This book aims to help overcome the deep-seated fears of childhood by exploring such problems from developmental and religious perspectives. The authors, a pediatrician and a psychiatrist with children of their own, claim that, Addressing the underlying fears of every child can be viewed as preventative medicine.

Kolchak: The Night Stalker

Ending on a lighter note, and for those too young to know much cultural history beyond the X-Files, consider this quaint, yet engaging, forerunner of supernatural science fiction. Carl Kolchak, played by Darren McGavin, is a reporter for the Independent News Service who encounters the supernatural on his quest for stories. Originally broadcast as a television series from 1974-1975, what The Night Stalker lacks in spine-tingling horror, it makes up for in faux terror and Kolchaks curmudgeonly charm. My favorite in the 3-DVD, 20-episode series is "Mr. R.I.N.G.," involving a relatively plausible sci-fi ploy that conjoins libraries, philosophy and high technology.