Spooky California: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore, Paperback

Pull up a chair or gather round the campfire and get ready for thirty creepy tales of ghostly hauntings, eerie happenings, and other strange occurrences in California. Set in the Golden State's big cities, oceanside towns, rugged mountains, and sparsely populated deserts, the stories in this entertaining and compelling collection will have readers looking over their shoulders again and again.California's folklore is kept alive in these expert retellings by master storyteller S. E. Schlosser and in artist Paul Hoffman's evocative illustrations. Readers will meet the Queen of Death Valley, cheer on the ghost who haunts his claim-jumping murderer, look out for a blood-hungry rolling head, learn about the sea monster of Monterey Bay Canyon, and hear otherworldly voices from the Pacific Ocean--or simply feel an icy wind on the back of their necks on a warm California evening. Whether read around the campfire on a dark and stormy night or from the backseat of the family van on the way to grandma's, this is a collection to treasure.

S. E. Schlosser has been telling stories since she was a child, when games of "let's pretend" quickly built themselves into full-length stories. A graduate of the Institute of Children's Literature and Rutgers University, she also created and maintains the Web site AmericanFolklore.net, where she shares a wealth of stories from all fifty states, some dating back to the origins of America. She is also the author of Globe Pequot's Spooky New England, Spooky New York, Spooky South, and Spooky Southwest. She lives in Arizona. Paul G. Hoffman trained in painting and printmaking, with his first extensive illustration work on assignment in Egypt, drawing ancient wall reliefs for the University of Chicago. His work graces books of many genres--children's titles, textbooks, short story collections, natural history volumes, and numerous cookbooks. For the Spooky series he employed a scratchboard technique and an active imagination.He lives in Massachusetts.