1 Moon-watch.
Werewolves transform only during a full moon, so keep track of the lunar cycle to know when to be extra “were-y” and to keep your guard up. Once transformed, werewolves can’t control their animal instincts. Luckily, a full moon occurs only once every 29 or 30 days, so you’ll know exactly when to stay indoors.
2 Signs, signs, everywhere signs!
As the full moon approaches, watch for unusual behavior. Is your friend scratching behind her ear with her foot? Is your sister’s hair looking especially thick and lustrous? Does your uncle get a five o’clock shadow (and an eight o’clock shadow…and a ten o’clock shadow)? Bewere of potential transformations.
Werewolf Words
• Lycanthrope.(LIE-can-thrope) A fancy name for “werewolf” that comes from the Greek for “wolf man.”
• Transmogrification. The sometimes painful process when a person changes into a werewolf. It’s like instant puberty.
• Wolfsbane. A poisonous purple-flowered plant that wards off werewolves. Hooray for flower power!
3 No biting!
Unless you have a desire to become part of the wolf pack, don’t let Fido sink his fangs into you. Werewolf bites (and scratches) are infectious.
BE AWARE • According to legend, if you drink water from a werewolf’s footprint, you will soon become wolfkind. So, if drinking muddy water out of strange footprints is your thing, it might be time to switch to bottled water.
4 Go for the silver!
Gold is great for the Olympics, but when it comes to defeating werewolves, silver is number one (as in silver bullets, arrow tips, or swords). Aim carefully because you may only get one chance to stop a lunging werewolf. And what’s worse than a lunging werewolf? A furious lunging werewolf.
CHAPTER 3
Hauntings and Other Mysteries
How to Navigate a Haunted House
Uh-oh. Your parents are going out of town and you’re sleeping over at your great aunt’s spooky, old house. It’s not just the bugs, the odd smell, and the fluffy black mold that bother you—it’s also that dreadful singing in the shower (when no one is in there!). Face it. The house is haunted. Here’s how to stay comfortable in your own skin when it wants to crawl.
1 Don’t go batty.
Haunted houses are like baseball dugouts. They’re dirty, smelly, and full of bats. Bats can be frightening with their fast-flapping wings, screeching calls, and nocturnal schedule, but attacking humans is not their thing. Though they are almost blind, they use echolocation (sound waves to locate objects in their way), so they shouldn’t fly into you.
2 Skip the stairs.
Staircases are common haunted-house hazards. They can swivel, squeak, or even downright collapse. You don’t want to head upstairs only to find out later that there’s no way to get back down. If you can stay grounded on the ground floor at all times, you’ll be better off. And, hey, ground floor means closer to the door!
World Famous Haunted Places
• Tower of London, London, England. The spirit of Ann Boleyn (King Henry VIII’s second wife, who was beheaded in the tower in 1536) and troops of ghostly soldiers are thought to haunt this historic site.
• The White House, Washington, D.C. Spend the night in one of the haunted bedrooms, and legend says you just might get a glimpse of the ghosts of Presidents Andrew Jackson and Abe Lincoln and First Lady Abigail Adams.
• Catacombs, Paris, France. The bones of more than six million Parisians are stored here, so you may want to skip this underground tour.
3 Use some common spidey sense.
Unlike bats, some spiders—like the black widow and black house spiders—are venomous. Also, where there are spiders, there could be cobwebs. Nothing is more spooky than walking through a web and then having to rip the sticky threads off your face. To avoid webs and spider bites, steer clear of dark nooks and crannies, especially in basements (this shouldn’t be too hard!).
4 Pull an all-nighter.
Reality check: Do you really think you’re going to get a good night’s sleep in a haunted house? So, to calm your nerves, why not invite a friend or two over for a slumber party? You can have a pillow fight, play games, watch movies, and tell ghost stories…well, maybe not ghost stories.
5 Study ghosts.
The key to dealing with ghostly ghouls is to keep your fear in check, and the best way to do this is to arm yourself with knowledge. Turn the page to learn how to make the most of your ghost hosts.
How to Evict a Ghost
Bats, spiders, and sketchy staircases are one thing (or, uh…three things), but a ghost is what makes a haunted house truly haunted. Ghosts can be terrifying, angry, or just downright cranky. Here’s how to get rid of an unwanted tenant, no matter what its temperament.
1 Politely ask the ghost to leave.
Yep, getting rid of a ghost can be that simple. Use a clear, firm voice but don’t sound angry. If you explain why the ghost is bothering you, it may respond to your logic and move on. No one wants to be a pest. Not even the dead.
2 Explain the whole “you’re dead” thing.
A ghost doesn’t always know it’s dead, so it may carry on, making an omelet, not seeing that the eggs are going right through its hands. Do the ghost a favor and calmly explain, “You’re dead.” That way, it can move from the physical world to the spiritual realm (and leave you alone).
3 Be a problem solver.
Sometimes a ghost is sticking around because it wants to take care of some unfinished business, like giving a message to a loved one or searching for an important personal belonging. Consider helping the ghost so it can move on and out of your home.
BE AWARE • You may have a ghost buster in your very own garden! Paranormal researchers believe that if you burn sage and let the scent fill your home, a ghost will get the message to get out.
Your Neighborhood Ghost Guide
• Phantom. A ghost that resembles the living…until it walks through your wall.
• Apparition. A transparent ghost that appears like a fog.
• Poltergeist. An invisible ghost that makes a racket and moves things around without asking. Like the ghost version of a little brother!
• Eau de toilette ghost. A ghost with a strong scent of perfume or cologne.
4 Decorate your door.
According to Irish folklore, spirits won’t enter a home if the door has been painted red. In Colonial America, people hammered decorative patterns of nails on their doors that were believed to guard against ghosts. Also, since ancient times, hazelnuts have been strung across doors to keep ghosts at bay. So, it seems like a good idea to do something with your door.
5 Live in harmony.
If all else fails and your ghost is of the extra-friendly variety, it might just be time to accept your ghostly fate—and your new roommate!
Shoe Ghost, Don’ t Bother Me!
According to folklore, if you place one shoe at the foot of your bed, facing one direction, and the other shoe facing the opposite direction, your home will be cleansed of ghosts. Of course, it might just be the nasty stench of your sneakers that gets rid of them!
How to Enhance Your ESP Powers
Ever just get a hunch about something? Maybe you sense what flavor you’re about to pull out of a box of jelly beans, or which hideous cat sweater your teacher is going to wear today. If so, you just might have ESP or extrasensory perception—the act of receiving information without using any of the five senses, like sight or hearing. Even if forecasting the future doesn’t come naturally, ESP is something you may be able to develop. Read on, and you may soon be reading people’s minds.
1 Assess your skills.
Have you experienced these different types of ESP? If not, check out these tips.
• Telepathy is mind-to-mind communication. Ask a friend to think of a shape or object. Close your eyes and allow the image to form in your mind. Is it an apple? Or that weird foot-measuring device at the shoe store?
• Psychome
try is the ability to learn the history of an object by touching it. Pick up something, like a used handkerchief. If you have this skill, visions of the handkerchief’s life will play in your mind like a rapid-fire movie montage, including images of those who have blown their noses in it.
BE AWARE • Déjà vu is the mysterious sensation you get when you feel like you’ve witnessed or experienced something before.
• Precognition is the ability to view events before they occur. Look at your teacher and let your eyes unfocus. If you have this ability, a vision of the future should emerge, like that pop quiz you’re not ready for. Be sure to distinguish between what is going to happen versus what you want to happen.
2 Work your muscles and your mind.
With ESP, you want to feel the answer. It’s not like math where thinking out the problem helps. The more you think, the more you’ll just cloud your “sixth sense.” Some ESP experts say that you literally feel the knowledge in your body, meaning your muscles tense up when sensing signals.
3 Pick a card. Any card.
One way to enhance your mind-reading powers is to practice with playing cards. Can you predict the card you’ve chosen? Turn it over to find out.
BE AWARE • Déjà vu is the mysterious sensation you get when you feel like you’ve witnessed or experienced something before.
4 Use your powers wisely.
Minds are like lockers. You really shouldn’t go poking around in one that isn’t yours. The exceptions are matters of life and death, like reading the minds of super villains who are up to no good, or figuring out if your crush likes you back…you know, matters of life and death.
Other ESP Powers You May Want to Try
• Ocuphonics. Knowing what the person on the other end of the phone looks like just by hearing his or her voice.
• Photosmilia. The ability to tell if someone is faking a smile in a photo.
• Shakeosight. The ability to know what’s in a gift-wrapped present, just by shaking it.
How to Control Your Dreams
You’re playing a game of kickball when, all of a sudden, your piano teacher winds up and rolls you a cantaloupe. And why are you dressed like a clown? You’re dreaming! Sometimes it feels like you have no control over your dreams, but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can learn to “awaken” in your dreams, get control, and do all kinds of cool stuff. Here’s how.
1 Get plenty of sleep.
When you’re asleep, your brain is most active during REM, or the Rapid Eye Movement stage. This stage is when most dreaming occurs. So, make sure you get at least eight hours of sleep to maximize your dreaming time.
2 Keep a dream journal.
If you want to learn how to control your dreams, you first need to remember them. The best way to improve your dream recall is to keep a “dream journal” by your bed. Any time you wake up during a dream, immediately write down what happened. Include every detail, no matter how bizarre.
3 Plan ahead.
Your dream journal is on your nightstand, and you’re hitting the sack nice and early. As you go to bed, tell yourself you are going to realize you are dreaming. Then picture what you will do or where you will go when you are dreaming.
4 Wake up (in your dream).
You’ve done everything right, and it turns out that you are, in fact, dreaming and aware of it! Now do what you planned on doing when you went to sleep. Will you swim with dolphins? Will you make the world’s biggest pizza? You decide!
Cool Things to Do When You Control Your Dreams
Since you’re in dreamland, you can do what you want and the laws of nature (and physics, for that matter) don’t apply.
• Fly. Whether you “swim” in the air or fly like a superhero, there are few things cooler than looking down on the world your mind has created as the wind blows through your hair.
• Eat and eat (and eat). You can make things taste the way you want them to in your dreams. Bite into any object and tell yourself it will taste like chocolate. Guess what? It will.
• Be amazed. Simply take in all the cool and crazy things your mind has created.
How to Investigate a Crop Circle
You take the dog out, wait for it to do its business, and let it sniff around that crop circle. Crop circle? Crop circles are giant designs in fields of grain made by crushing the stems so they lie flat. Some people think they’re made by artsy aliens in flying saucers, but skeptics say they’re just fancy hoaxes. So, how do you determine what went down in that field? Channel your inner Sherlock and try these tips.
1 Ask about nighttime noise.
“Circle makers” work at night. So, if a crop circle crops up in your neighborhood wheat or barley field, ask people who live nearby if they heard anything out of the ordinary the night before. Creating a crop circle sometimes involves machinery, like farm vehicles, so someone may have heard something.
2 Get the dirt on the dirt.
To make crop circles, people sometimes use wooden planks to crush the grain stalks. So, examine the dirt in and around the crop circle. Do you see any impressions that look like they were made by a plank being pressed into the dirt? Or, do you see any footprints leading to and from the crop circle?
BE AWARE • So if it wasn’t some folks tooling around in a field, who (or what) created the crop circle? Theories include whirlwind vortexes (a type of tornado), ball lightning (mysterious glowing spheres), or military experiments.
Crop Circle Hall of Fame
Though the majority of crop circles have been discovered in southern England, they have also been found in other parts of the world. The four shown below (from a bird’s-eye view) vary in size from 198 feet (60 meters) to 916 feet (280 meters) in diameter.
Payerne, Switzerland, July 2007
Tennessee, United States, May 2008
Boryoung City, South Korea, June 2008
Stonehenge, England, July 1996
3 Inspect the center.
To create a perfect circle, crop-circle makers sometimes place a stake in the ground and tie a rope to it. Then they hold the other end of the rope, stretch it tight, and walk in a circle, stomping the grain as they go. To prove that a circle was made this way, look for a little hole in the ground in the exact center of a crop circle. Or, look for a mess of footprints in the center (as someone could have held the rope there). If a neighbor still insists that an alien or UFO did it, just say that your evidence is truly grounded in fact. Your work here is done.
Real or Ridiculous?
a. About 10,000 crop circles have been reported worldwide since the 1970s.
b. Some crop circles are made by prairie dog communities.
c. Most formations appear in wheat and corn, but they have also occurred in barley, oats, and grass.
Answer: b. is ridiculous.
CHAPTER 4
Time Travel
How to Pack for Time Travel
So, you somehow figured out the hard part, which is how to travel through time. And your time machine is fueled up and ready to go. It’s almost time to take off on your first blast-to-the-past. What do you pack for a trip through centuries? Extra underwear? For sure. What else? Check out the list below.
Time-Travel Kit Essentials
• Gold. Today’s cash is probably useless where you’re headed. Gold, on the other hand, has been valuable across the ages. If you don’t have any gold, take along other trade-worthy items, like exotic spices, silks, furs, candy, your brother’s toys…
• Water purifier. Water hasn’t always flowed directly out of faucets, and even when it did, it wasn’t always clean. Bad water can mean stomach problems (good thing you’ve packed that extra underwear).
• Snacks. Ancient Romans liked to dine on peacock tongues. In ancient Egypt, the bread was so hard and gritty, it wore down people’s teeth. If you won’t want to partake in these delights, pack some snacks.
• Camera. Want to snap a pic of a not-yet-leaning Tower of Pisa? Shoot a video of Abe Lincoln giving the Gettysburg
Address? You’ll need a good camera disguise, especially if you want to keep the camera out long enough for video-making.
Camera Disguises for Time Travelers
• First-aid kit. If you get sick on a trip to the past, you may want to avoid going to the local doctor. In medieval times, medical care was given by barbers, whose remedies included using leeches to “suck out” the sickness. Head back to the future and call your doctor in the morning.
• Clothes that won’ t raise eyebrows. Read up on the fashions of your destination and go for a look that says “I-assure-you-there’s-nothing-weird-about-me-at-all.”
• Foreign language dictionary. You’ll want to communicate pressing matters using more than charades or pictures. Just think of all the embarrassing things you might have to act out (like when you really have to go and don’t know where to go).
• History books. Don’t be out of the loop when your new friends talk about “current events.” And they’ll be oh-so impressed when you predict “the future.” Just be sure to travel to a time where you scored at least a “B” on the test about it.
The Weirdest “What If” of Time Travel
What if you traveled to the past and made some change that—gasp!—made it impossible for you to be born?
Imagine it this way: What if you visited the time of your grandfather’s youth, and (accidentally, of course!) caused your grandfather to die before he could grow up and start a family? What would happen? Would you disappear right then and there? But wait—how did you exist to get there in the first place?
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