by Dave Shelton
But Jack is a curious boy.
Megan looks up at the old house, scowling at the crack of light in the upstairs window. It’s nonsense of course, what that boy told her about this place. What was his name anyway? James? Josh? Something beginning with J, she thinks. She can’t really remember much about him at all. Strange little kid. It must be nearly a year now since he told her. What had he called this place? The House Where the Ghosts Meet. That was it.
Silly little idiot.
Just ridiculous.
Still, she wonders if there’s a way in around the back.
With thanks to:
Bella Pearson for editing, cheerleading, and wisdom;
David Fickling for patience and faith;
Ness Wood for designing, general brilliance,
and moral support;
Sue Cook for copyediting
(especially her vital tidying of errant punctuation);
Pam Smy for, you know, everything;
and Mila Bartolomé Smy for inspiration
and musical accompaniment.
Dave Shelton is the creator of the comic strip Good Dog, Bad Dog. His debut novel for children, A Boy and a Bear in a Boat, was short-listed for numerous awards in the United Kingdom and won the Branford Boase Award—an award given to an outstanding children’s or young adult novel by a first-time writer. He lives in Cambridge, England, with his family. You can visit him online at www.daveshelton.com.
Text copyright © 2015 and illustrations copyright © 2014 by Dave Shelton
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920, by arrangement with David Fickling Books, Oxford, England. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. DAVID FICKLING BOOKS and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of David Fickling Books.
First published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by David Fickling Books, 31 Beaumont Street, Oxford, OX1 2NP. www.davidficklingbooks.com
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shelton, Dave, author.
Thirteen chairs / by Dave Shelton.—[First U.S. edition].
pages cm
First published in the United Kingdom in 2014 by David Fickling Books.
Summary: When Jack enters the deserted house in his neighborhood, he finds a group of people who invite him to take the thirteenth chair in the room and share a story—in the house where the ghosts meet.
ISBN 978-0-545-81665-6
1. Haunted houses—Juvenile fiction. 2. Storytelling—Juvenile fiction.
3. Death—Juvenile fiction. 4. Ghost stories. [1. Haunted houses—Fiction.
2. Storytelling—Fiction. 3. Death—Fiction. 4. Ghosts—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.S54147Th 2015
823.92—dc23
[Fic]
2014035628
First edition, August 2015
Cover art © 2014 Dave Shelton
Author photo by Pam Smy
e-ISBN 978-0-545-82311-1
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.