Children's Books discussion

This month, participants can explore claims of real encounters with ghosts or haunted houses. These types of books are usually found in the Dewey number 133. Here are some sample books from my local library's catalog:

Ghoulish Ghost Stories
Don't Read This Book Before Bed: Thrills, Chills, and Hauntingly True Stories
The Winchester Mystery House: A Chilling Interactive Adventure
Ghosts Unveiled!
Strange but True: 10 of the World’s Greatest Mysteries Explained
Bone-Chilling Ghost Stories
Atlas of Monsters and Ghosts
Handbook to Ghosts, Poltergeists, and Haunted Houses
Happy Haunted Reading!

Well, the first book I tried might not really fit the theme, but Spooky Joke Book has definitely been a bust, with boring and silly jokes and distracting illustrations.

Haunted Canada: True Ghost Stories is interesting enough but Pat Hancock does not really write all that engagingly and with not much sense for the creepy. And that she has not included the haunting of the Ottawa youth hostel (which in the 19th century was the main prison and gallows) is really an oversight for me.

During our Seymour Simon month earlier this year, I read his 1979 Ghosts and I was not really all that impressed. The stories are not really penned in an engaging manner (and even for someone like me who does not enjoy books that are too spooky, Seymour Simon’s text is not really creepy enough enough for a collection of ghost stories, even if meant for younger readers). But also, the text kind of feels as though Seymour Simon cannot make up his mind if the nine stories encountered in Ghosts are supposed to true or fictional, which is definitely kind of annoying.

Dinah Williams provides a decent and not too creepy factual introduction to eleven haunted houses with her Haunted Houses (nine American, one Canadian, one Jamaican). But yes, adult readers might want a bit more spookiness and I am definitely disappointed that Williams only focuses on North American haunted houses.

Ghostly Evidence is a bit dry and academic, and definitely more suitable for children above the age of ten (and not because Kelly Milner Halls’ text is creepy but rather because it is pretty dense and informational). Personally, I like how balanced the author (who herself is a bit skeptics regarding the reality of ghosts) is and that Milner Halls does not expect her readers to believe in ghosts etc. but to just keep an open mind and to realise that while many stories about ghosts are not true (and that there have also been cases of deliberate hoaxes and mass hysteria) there are also many accounts of paranormal phenomena and reputed hauntings that defy explanation.

Ghostly Evidence sounds interesting, and I checked, and my library has copies, so I put one on hold. Should get it soon.

Beverly wrote: "Ghostly Evidence sounds interesting, and I checked, and my library has copies, so I put one on hold. Should get it soon."

It is definitely interesting and balanced.

Haunted Canada 2: True Tales of Terror has the same issues as the first Haunted Canada book, basically that Pat Hancock does not give her stories a sufficiently creepy narrative feel. And I also do not think that accounts of Lake monsters and Bigfoot (Sasquatch) should be featured in a book about hauntings.

Noticing that many non fiction books titled Ghosts all kind of look the same. But it sure is appreciated that many of these the tomes do seem to include bibliographies.

Spooky Spinechillers is meant for independent readers from about the age of seven to ten. It presents seven international in scope and reputed to be true ghost stories (and with there also being additional ghost and hauntings information contained in the side panels), sufficiently interesting and educational content and theme wise, but stylistically, Spooky Spinechillers is actually rather mundanely penned and definitely not really spooky. And no bibliography either!

Absolute boredom with regard to Ghosts! Ghostly Tales from Folklore, and with artwork I consider majorly ugly! In fact, I found Ghosts! Ghostly Tales from Folklore so boring and not even remotely creepy that it kind of has felt like I was reading a tedious textbook.

Handbook to Ghosts, Poltergeists, and Haunted Houses by Sean McCollum
This is a brief book for middle grade students, which will give them an overview of the subjects, but does not go into much depth. The text is readable and makes the information interesting. The book is illustrated with many photos. It ends with a glossary, a brief bibliography, and an index.

Ghoulish Ghost Stories by Joan Axelrod-Contrada
This is another brief book for middle grade students. The author recounts 5 stories, one from England, and the other four from the USA. The first story features poltergeists; the second, a haunted covered bridge; the Bell Witch; the Amityville house; and a boy tormented by ghosts. The stories well-told, in a way to send chills up the backs of young readers. The book concludes with a glossary, bibliography, and index.

A sweet, not too creepy, but definitely rather sad and painful “family” ghost story reputed to be true and taking place in 19th century Quebec, I really enjoyed The Ghost on the Hearth. But I did almost cry reading about Emily and how after her sudden death from illness she ends up haunting her former place of work and all because she had taken some candle stubs to take home to her family, so yes, parents should realise that while The Ghost on the Hearth is not creepy or terrifying, the story is emotional and saddening, albeit also quite historically informative.

John Guy’s Ghosts- The Unexplained is nicely balanced and neither claims that ghosts exist nor that they do not exist, but that yes, there are many examples of hauntings and the like that also cannot simply be explained away.

Wish that the accompanying visuals were a bit better and the bibliography more extensive, but a decent introduction that neither seems to be pro or against ghosts being real.

Have found Kelli M. Brucken’s Mysterious Encounters - Ghosts really boring writing style and narration wise (and really, the only thing that makes this book two stars and not one star for me is that I appreciate the detailed bibliography).

Monsters - Banshees also by Kelli M. Brucken is much more engagingly penned and interesting as her book about ghosts. But I do not really like the title as personally I consider banshees not to be monsters.

The Winchester Mystery House: A Chilling Interactive Adventure by Matt Doeden
Having visited this tourist attraction many decades ago, I am still fascinated by it. However, I did not read the summary of this book before I checked it out, and it turned out to be part of the "You Choose" (your own ending) series of books. So it is partly fictional and partly informational. The fictional part is two teens who enter the house, and have all kinds of encounters with ghosts (some of which encounters are based on real-life sightings), with various endings. I don't typically like this type of jumping around in the book format, so I just read it straight through (which does not always make much sense to the story path). Anyway, the final chapter is "A Dark History of the Winchester House" which is a brief bio of Sarah Winchester and her house. The entire book has plenty of photographs of the exterior and interior of the house. Backmatter includes a time line, a glossary, a brief bibliography, and an index. Verdict: Not as much info about the house as I was hoping for.

Beverly wrote: "The Winchester Mystery House: A Chilling Interactive Adventure by Matt Doeden
Having visited this tourist attraction many decades ago, I am still fascinated by it. Ho..."

Good to know! I have also never been that into those choose your own adventure types of books.

Manybooks wrote: "Ghostly Evidence is a bit dry and academic, and definitely more suitable for children above the age of ten (and not because Kelly Milner Halls’ text is creepy but rather because it ..."

I finished reading this today, and agree with Manybooks' assessment of the book (except I didn't find it dry; I found it very readable), and I appreciated the author's open-minded approach to the subject. I really liked how she included opinions of skeptics, and she had info on people like Houdini who used to expose the frauds of supposed mediums. Backmatter includes instructions to fake a ghost photo, source notes, glossary, bibliography, list of places to visit, and an index.

Beverly wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "Ghostly Evidence is a bit dry and academic, and definitely more suitable for children above the age of ten (and not because Kelly Milner Halls’ text is creepy but ..."

I enjoyed the book as well, but just wanted a tiny bit more creepiness. But so far, Ghostly Evidence has been the best of the “true” ghost story books I have read.

Manybooks wrote: "Beverly wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "Ghostly Evidence is a bit dry and academic, and definitely more suitable for children above the age of ten (and not because Kelly Milner Halls’ tex..."

I agree that it was not particularly creepy, more just straightforward reporting.

Beverly wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "Beverly wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "Ghostly Evidence is a bit dry and academic, and definitely more suitable for children above the age of ten (and not because Kelly..."

Which might even be better for older readers!

World's Best True Ghost Stories are in my opinion a bit too much like urban legends than ghost stories reputed to be true, an engaging enough and not too creepy selection but I was definitely wanting something a bit different, more specific, less anonymous.

For me, the “true” ghost stories collections by Sterling Publishing leave a bit to be desired. World's Best True Ghost Stories feel too much like urban legends, and in World's Most Terrifying "True" Ghost Stories, the author has abridged his tales so much that almost no sense of historical reality and of spookiness remains. And no bibliographic information either!

So yes, even though on Open Library David C. Knight’s Best True Ghost Stories of the 20th Century is shelved as being for juveniles, personally, I consider it more for older teenagers and adults, not because of spookiness, but because both the introduction and the twenty stories are rather textbook like, heavy with details and while interesting not all that entertainingly rendered.

The introduction, concluding remarks and the bibliography of David Wests’s Ghosts and Poltergeists are interesting and balanced. But the inserted graphic novels three reputed to be true ghost stories have really awful illustrations (garish, ugly, freaky) and the third story of the Amityville, Long Island haunted house is pretty inaccurate (especially since many ghost hunters and researchers now consider most of the “hauntings” to have been hoaxes).

I have personally enjoyed reading how in The Mystery of Haunted Houses author Chris Oxlade basically shows that the majority of haunted houses have scientific and logical non ghost appearing reasons. But yes, for readers who want to believe that all or most cases of haunted houses are true instances of ghosts appearing, The Mystery of Haunted Houses might be a bit cynical and not willing to think outside of the proverbial box.

So just to tell a Canadian ghost story reputed to be true! The University where I did my undergraduate degree, Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick (one of the oldest universities in the Maritimes), its Hart Hall is supposed to be haunted by the ghost of music professor Ethel Peake. She died in 1954 and was reputed to have been heard singing at her own funeral and many music students have claimed to have seen Ethel Peake or to have heard her singing over the years in Hart Hall (where the Mount Allison Music Department is located), and a few of my university friends who were studying music absolutely claim that Ethel Peake had appeared to them and had even kind of coached them while they were practicing scales etc.

I do kind of wonder if any of the ghost stories penned by Lucy Maud Montgomery might have been ones that she had heard and were reputed to be true. For yes, quite a number of them do have a ring of “truth” to them, but of course that might also be simply because Lucy Maud Montgomery was adept at making many of her ghost stories appear a possible reality. Anyhow, time to get out and reread Among the Shadows: Tales from the Darker Side (which I do every October for the Halloween season).

Ghosts Unveiled! by Kerrie Logan Hollihan

This is an interesting book for middle grade readers. The book has chapters on ghostly pets, ghosts guarding treasure, ghosts of war, ghosts on trains, Communist ghosts, ghosts on ships, ghosts from Korea, China, and Japan, and ghosts that haunt around Christmas time. The chapter on vanishing hitchhikers and the Lady in White are more urban legends than true ghost stories. For many of the ghost stories, there is only one witness, making the truth of the story questionable. A few of the stories do have multiple witnesses. The author even includes a personal ghost story. On the cover of the book is a supposedly haunted house on the UT campus in Austin, TX. But there is no mention of this house in the book, other than one sentence on the verso of the title page! Very disappointing, as I wanted more info about the house. (Sure, I can google it, but the info should have been in the book). Otherwise, I think young readers will like it.

Beverly wrote: "Ghosts Unveiled! by Kerrie Logan Hollihan

This is an interesting book for middle grade readers. The book has chapters on ghostly pets, ghosts guarding treasure, gh..."

I did not know that there are specifically Communist ghosts. Does the author describe these types of ghosts and what makes them Communist?

Manybooks wrote: "Beverly wrote: "Ghosts Unveiled! by Kerrie Logan Hollihan

This is an interesting book for middle grade readers. The book has chapters on ghostly pets, ghosts guard..."

Specifically, the ghost of Lenin.

Beverly wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "Beverly wrote: "Ghosts Unveiled! by Kerrie Logan Hollihan

This is an interesting book for middle grade readers. The book has chapters on ghostly ..."

Ooh, that would be creepy but not as creepy as meeting the ghost of Stalin.

Beverly wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "Beverly wrote: "Ghosts Unveiled! by Kerrie Logan Hollihan

This is an interesting book for middle grade readers. The book has chapters on ghostly ..."

I guess meeting Lenin’s ghost would be pretty similar in many ways to meeting the spirit of other erstwhile leaders.

I wonder if there are also stories about Adolf Hitler’s or Benito Mussolini’s ghosts (but if there are, I would likely not want to encounter them).

A lot of “true” ghost story collections do feel more like urban legends.

Maritime Mysteries: And the Ghosts Who Surround Us

Because one of our book clubs in the Children’s Literature Group on Goodreads is for October 2021 featuring supposedly “true” ghost stories, I decided to read Bill Jessome’s anthology of reputed to represent bona fide reality ghost and hauntings tales set in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island (which I happened to stumble across on Open Library). And albeit that his, that Jessome’s Maritime Mysteries: And the Ghosts Who Surround Us (which is actually the revised 2014 edition) in my opinion does not in fact appear to have been specifically conceptualised with younger readers in my mind, there is to and for me also nothing really all that creepy and frightening to be encountered in Maritime Mysteries: And the Ghosts Who Surround Us, and that Bill Jessome’s collection of tales (from haunted houses, to tales of possession, and of course, seeing that we are dealing with the Canadian Maritimes, also a sizeable amount of phantom ship and sea ghost stories) is therefore and basically just a fun, interesting, intriguing (and definitely at times even quite believable) but with regard to presented eeriness and spookiness rather majorly tamely penned account of Maritime provinces of Canada ghostly evidence and encounters with diverse phantoms and spirits that is most definitely suitable for reading by anyone from about the age of nine or so onwards.

Now with regard to the believability of the encountered tales, well, Bill Jessome does not actually seem to expect his readers to in fact absolutely believe in ghosts and to therefore equally believe in the veracity of Maritime Mysteries: And the Ghosts Who Surround Us. However, with the vast majority of the encountered ghost stories, Bill Jessome’s text does mention both specific geographic localities, specific areas and municipalities in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and also particular ghosts and the names of individuals and families who have met up with, who have encountered hauntings and visits by departed spirits, which certainly does make it a bit more difficult to discount the stories of Maritime Mysteries: And the Ghosts Who Surround Us as just figments of the imagination and/or legends (and especially so since in many of the included ghost stories, there are reported accounts of many many people experiencing these ghostly phenomena, such as for example with the ghost ship of Northumberland Strait, where whenever the burning ship is seen, this is reported all along the PEI and NB coasts).

So yes, although there is no included bibliography with suggestions for further reading and research, personally, I do think that the author, that Bill Jessome does present the ghost stories of Maritime Mysteries: And the Ghosts Who Surround Us as being “true” for the most part, or at least as possibly so (and considering that when I was at university in Sackville, New Brunswick, I was never quite sure if I had not seen the ghost ship of the Northumberland Strait, I am certainly willing to believe that many of the stories found in Maritime Mysteries: And the Ghosts Who Surround Us do have that proverbial ring of truth to them).

The World's Most Famous Ghosts

Interesting stories and engagingly penned, but there are three main issues that rather bother me.

Daniel Cohen is not really all that textually balanced and gives a rather uncritical acceptance without adequate proof that his selected ghost accounts are true and need to be believed.

No bibliography is for me a huge shortcoming.

Title is misleading, as the stories are not really international in scope since they mostly focus on the UK and on the USA.

So Daniel Cohen’s 1972 In Search of Ghosts is nicely balanced and certainly not an uncritical acceptance of ghosts being real. But I do find it kind of strange that in 1979 with The World's Most Famous Ghosts, Cohen seems to suddenly have morphed into kind of an uncritical believer.

Still think though that even with the appreciated balance of In Search of Ghosts, interested readers should definitely consider Ghostly Evidence instead. Kelly Milner Halls is in my humble opinion a much better and more concise writer than Daniel Cohen and with a publication date of 2014, Ghostly Evidence is of course also much more up to date than a book on ghosts published in 1972.

So yes, from the collections of “true” ghost stories I have read this month, my favourite is definitely Maritime Mysteries.

And from the more intellectual books about on ghosts and whether or not they exist, Ghostly Evidence is in my opinion superior.

And I did really love The Ghost on the Hearth, and that this picture book is based on a family ghost story.

Beverly wrote: "The Winchester Mystery House: A Chilling Interactive Adventure by Matt Doeden
Having visited this tourist attraction many decades ago, I am still fascinated by it. Ho..."

There do seem other geared towards younger readers books about the Winchester Mystery House. Might check if Open Library has any of them, but am actually kind of ghosted out.

Might still try to read the third and fourth of the Haunted Canada books, but they can at present only be signed out hourly on Open Library, so I am going to wait until I can sign them out for the standard fourteen days.

The Haunted States Of America: Haunted Houses and Spooky Places in All 50 States and Canada, Too!

Interesting, balanced and engagingly penned without too much creepiness (and with both a glossary and a bibliography), I still do find it annoying that instead of presenting stories from every Canadian province/territory (like is done with the US states) author Joan Holub only features stories from Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Ontario.

So yes, if you are interested in the Haunted Canada books, I would definitely recommend Haunted Canada 3: More True Ghost Stories above the first two books.

Pat Hancock’s writing style is not as mundane and with a boring spookiness in Haunted Canada 3: More True Ghost Stories, presenting an engaging text suitable for older children, and in fact, everyone from about the age eight or nine onwards.

And yes, the stories found in Haunted Canada 3: More True Ghost Stories are also more believable and definitely with a superior style than in both Haunted Canada: True Ghost Stories and Haunted Canada 2: True Tales of Terror.

I do not like books about “true” ghost stories where the author or the collector has a totally unbalanced and uncritical acceptance of ghosts being real, and Haunted Canada 4: More True Tales of Terror is definitely like this, with author Joel A. Crawford (who has taken over from Pat Hancock and is in fact the author for books five to ten) actually and in my humble opinion even kind of being totally dismissive and disrespectful to those of us who do not believe in ghosts or would need more solid proof (and personal experiences) in order to believe in ghosts.

So has anyone actually had an experience which could be deemed as being potentially paranormal or having seen a ghost?

I do not really believe in ghosts but I have had a rather strange experience regarding my father’s oldest sister Sigrid.

Aunt Sigrid became a widow in 1971 and I was visiting her in Germany by myself in the summer of 1981 around the anniversary of my uncle’s death. And on the night my uncle had died ten years ago, my aunt and I were chatting until around midnight and she was not only really opening up her heart to me but also telling me all kinds of juicy family gossip.

Now everyone in the family has always said my aunt Sigrid and I look remarkably alike and she had a small painted portrait of herself from when she was one year old which really and truly looked totally like I did at that age. So at the end of that evening of gossip and stories, my aunt gave me that same portrait.

And in the fall of 1991, when my aunt was in the last stages of cancer, I had just handed in my MA thesis and was busy marking midterm language exams, when I happened to glance up and thought that the portrait of my aunt was smiling at me and I thought I also heard in German my aunt whispering congratulations on your MA to me (and well, five minutes after this, I got a phone call from Germany that she, that my Aunt Sigrid had just died).

A good bye from my aunt via a portrait of her that connected us? Not sure, but it definitely was a bit strange and I certainly did not mention this to the rest of the family.

Manybooks wrote: "So has anyone actually had an experience which could be deemed as being potentially paranormal or having seen a ghost?

I do not really believe in ghosts but I have had a rather strange experience ..."

That's a lovely story. I have only seen ghosts in my dreams (my father who passed in 2001 and my sister who passed a year ago).

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts

So yes, in order for a reader to enjoy Daniel Cohen's The Encyclopedia of Ghosts wholly and unreservedly, he or she will need to in my humble opinion also have a totally uncritical personal belief in the existence of ghosts, he or she must accept without much if any doubting and skepticism that ghosts are real and that stories and legends of haunted houses, spiritual apparitions and the like therefore and in fact always do represent total reality and not possible fantasy.

For indeed, in ALL of the ghost tales featured and textually presented by Daniel Cohen in The Encyclopedia of Ghosts there is absolutely no doubt entertained by the author that ghosts really do exist and that the tales he (Cohen) is representing correspond to individuals telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth, that they demonstrate real and bona fide occurrences and not ever figments of the imagination or hoaxes and tricks. And most definitely, Daniel Cohen's pretty well and absolutely iron-clad belief in the reality of ghosts, this certainly is and presents something that I as very much a skeptic with regard to whether ghosts are real or not do have major trouble accepting without a massive level of caveats and criticisms (and in particular since quite a number of the ghostly tales featured in The Encyclopedia of Ghosts, such as for example the Amityville Horror scenarios have now in fact been pretty much proven to be fake, to be made-up, but that still, Daniel Cohen textually describes them in The Encyclopedia of Ghosts as "real" and does not ever in my opinion even somewhat entertain doubts regarding ghostly realities, which I do find both uncomfortable for me as a reader and also just not all that interesting and enlightening, as constantly reading that Daniel Cohen believes in ghosts also gets rather tedious and pretty draggingly monotonous).

And finally, while I do to a point appreciate that The Encyclopedia of Ghosts contains a bibliography, let's face it, said bibliography has been rendered by Daniel Cohen to be so annoyingly user and research unfriendly that checking Cohen's sources is so ridiculously difficult that I almost have to wonder whether this has been deliberate, that Daniel Cohen might not even want readers to verify and do research on ghosts and on their possible reality (as the text of The Encyclopedia of Ghosts certainly does feel as though Cohen is definitely rather allergic to anyone doubting his attitude towards ghosts and that ghosts are real, that they do exist).

Beverly wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "So has anyone actually had an experience which could be deemed as being potentially paranormal or having seen a ghost?

I do not really believe in ghosts but I have had a rather s..."

I hope those dreams were positive experiences.