Halloween is just a week away, but it’s never too early to start celebrating the most spook-tacular holiday of the year!
Last month, ghost story expert Dan Poblocki welcomed readers to Shadow House, the first book in a chilling new series. The five young heroes of the book lived through a terrifying day in Shadow House, but they weren’t the only ones having supernatural encounters. Several members of Scholastic’s Team Shadow House have reported ghostly experiences since working on the series . . . as if the books themselves are haunted! Check out their spooky stories below, and then head over to the Shadow House site to learn more about the book and accompanying app!
Dan Poblocki
When I was writing Shadow House, I often worked at an office space in a sleepy, industrial section of Brooklyn, New York. One night, the sun had gone down, and I didn’t realize that I was alone in the space, so when I stood up from my cubicle and turned off my little lamp, the room was completely dark. Walking home, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was following me. But whenever I turned around, no one and nothing was there, thank goodness!
Erin, Editorial
A few months after I started editing Shadow House, I was in the woods trying to find a lost dog. My husband and I walk by one small clearing, just a few feet across, and what do we see there? Doll parts. Arms, legs, heads, no torsos. And one of the doll faces had been burnt. It was so creepy, and so very Shadow House.
Beth, Marketing
Right after I started working on the series, my team created a marketing display that looks like the mirror from the cover of Shadow House #1: The Gathering (complete with a ghost girl looking back at you!). Unfortunately, when we first made it there was a noticeable white mark on the front of the mirror and it really bothered me. One evening, I asked the production department to fix it. I came in the next morning and voilà! the mirror was fixed. I called my production colleague to thank him and on the other end I heard a long pause. Confused, he said, “I haven’t touched the mirror.” I’m not saying the mirror fixed itself, but I am saying that the ghost inside the mirror has a knack for handy work.
Lisa, Marketing
One night, not too long after I became a member of Team Shadow House, I was about to go to sleep when I started to hear piano music; it sounded clear enough to be coming from within a few feet of my bedroom. My roommate is a musician and often practices on her keyboard late into the night, so I asked her about it the next morning. It turns out that she WAS playing music . . . but with her sound-proof headphones on the entire time!
Monica, Publicity
A couple of months after I began working on the series, I was watching a baseball game at home one night when I looked up at the television screen and saw what I (still) swear was a girl in a white gown with dark hair standing in the doorway of my kitchen. When I turned my head towards the kitchen, nothing or no one was there. I was so spooked that I had to convince myself that it was just a trick of the lighting. Either that or the girl was a really big baseball fan and wanted to catch the end of that game.
