Since 1926, Pelican Publishing Company has been committed to publishing books of quality and permanence that enrich the lives of those who read them.
Horror & Ghost Stories
When they agreed to spend Halloween night in the middle of a swamp, the boys of the Society of Sublime Scribblers thought they were in for a few scary stories, but they never expected to become part of one! Instead of treats, the boys receive a heaping bag of tricks when the Bayou Bogeyman traps them into playing his twisted game: unless they can tell stories sinister enough to chill even the Bogeyman’s bones, the boys might just become his midnight feast.
A tale of trickery and greed, pirogues and buried treasure, will o’ the wisps and dancing light—The Fifolet tells of a fire sprite who exists all over the globe. But nowhere does the sprite burn as bright as in the black swamps of Cajun bayou. Legend says if you see a fifolet, a blue flame of light, you may just disappear. Where do you go? Nobody knows—nobody except maybe Jean Paul Pierre.
Being a ghost isn’t easy. . . even if you have a PhD in haunting! Henry Hamilton is a Civil War ghost with a dream of traveling in outer space. Little does he know when he stows away on the space shuttle as the first ghost in outer space that keeping incognito isn’t as easy as it is on earth. Hardcover.
Imagine being a certified, summa cum laude graduate of Spiritual Specter University, looking forward to your first job as a bona fide ghost, only to discover that through a computer error you have been assigned to a brand-new house in a modern subdivision. Not only is the place devoid of cobwebs and creaking doors, but it is occupied by Jean-Paul Landry, an absent-minded professor, his unflappable wife, their twelve noisy, rambunctious children ranging in age from fifteen down to less than one year, and a docile dachshund. Paperback.
Twelve-year-old Fiona is not looking forward to traveling to California with her parents to clean out her recently deceased grandmother’s house. But when she finds a secret love letter from her grandfather to her grandmother containing mysterious symbols, she’s suddenly keen on exploring every nook and cranny of the abandoned house.
Told through repetition and rhythm, this Halloween tale invites children to participate in the fun. Cats meow, skeletons rattle, bats flap, and a mom fusses at a picky little boy—all in Witchy’s creaky old house. Throughout the story, other spooky creatures come out to play! Finely detailed cut-paper and collage illustrations complete this frightful fable.
One fall afternoon, young Ben Mozingo’s father, Cordes, takes Ben on a routine tour of The Bond, the large plantation for which he is superintendent. The routine tour, however, turns into a trip that will alter their lives forever. Paperback.
“Don’t take what ain’t yours . . . just because it was lying there,” teaches the mysterious creature in this eerie Southern tall tale. A hungry trapper learns his lesson when he eats the tail of a furry animal with glowing eyes and long, sharp claws, and the creature returns, looking for his taileebone. From start to finish, this is a hair-raising tale about what becomes of Otis and his furry dinner guest.
A story of intrigue and action, The Over-The-Hill Ghost enhanced by imaginative, Gothic-style illustrations will delight children aged 8 to 12. The central character is Jamie Boyd, a street-wise, 12-year-old boy from New York City. Paperback.
In Rhyne’s account, two young twins named Josh and Matt venture into the dangerous unknowns of the haunted Hell Hole Swamp in search of ghosts, but find themselves facing a much more frightening and real creature. Concealed among the greenery and moss, they spy the man-sized lizard with radiant green scales and an eerie, somewhat human smile. Paperback.