YMMV / Bruce Coville's Book of...

• Harsher in Hindsight: The protagonist’s situation in "Phoenix Farm", in which her father loses his job and leaves the family because of a recession, became this with the advent of the Great Recession about twenty years after the story came out.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • "There's Nothing Under the Bed" ends with David revealing that he’s found a weak spot under somebody’s bed, and one day, he’ll be dragging its owner down there to take his place. And as he says, it could be any bed… even yours.
  • "The Plant People" in Book of Aliens II details a mysterious fog filled with dancing lights that slowly turned people into cacti. It seems silly until you read about them first changed into brainless, green-veined shells of their former selves, wandering listlessly around trying to photosynthesize, and see the illustration of one confused victim clutching a cactus, not seeming to mind the pain. Worse still is the end: A news report says they finally found a cure, but just as they're about to reveal it, the fog descends...