Werewolves by Dr. Bob Curran, illustrated by Ian Daniels
c.2009, New Page Books
$14.99/$20.95 Canada
221 pages, includes index
The Ghost Chronicles by Maureen Wood & Ron Kolek
c.2009, Sourcebooks
$14.99/$18.99 Canada
308 pages

It’s quarter after midnight, and you can’t sleep.
All night long, some joker – a neighbor who thinks he’s smart, or some kid – keeps thumping and scratching on your outside door. Or maybe it’s an animal, but you don’t think that’s it – there’s no animal that big or that persistent.

Now you’ve had enough. Whoever it is has got to stop. Whoever it is- You flip on a light. And scream.

It’s not a who. It’s a what. Scared?

Oh, come on. You got a little shiver. Admit it – then read these two books that will put the “Oooooo” in spooky this Halloween.

It’s hard to look at the cover of Werewolves by Dr. Bob Curran, illustrated by Ian Daniels, and not feel goose bumps. But do werewolves really exist, or are they the product of a whole lot of fanciful imaginations?

To answer that question, Curran plunges into literature and history 1,000 years old to show that there were words for a wolf-man back when Vikings were still exploring the seas. One of the original Wulfstans (roughly, “wolf stone”) was a powerful clergyman and lawmaker.

Hardly scary, until you understand that one of his successors was turned into a wolf by St. Patrick, according to legend. Other saints followed suit, and there you are: A ticked-off human-wolf hybrid.
The wolf – long a foe of mankind – is obviously at root of the werewolf legend, Curran says, and psychology plays a part in making our brains believe. Add centuries of literature, real humans raised by wolves and “the thrill of the dark creature,” and that scratch on the door is benign no more.

But wait. What if the spirit is in the room with you?

According to The Ghost Chronicles by Maureen Wood and Ron Kolek, get out of the house – fast! Spirits usually can’t leave the building they’ve chosen to inhabit. But they can inhabit a person, at least for a little while, as you’ll see in this book.

Author Wood is a medium who can “channel” spirits (and they’re not always nice ones), while author Kolek is, as a paranormal scientist, the guy with meters and monitors. Together, they relate 17 cases they’ve investigated, including one malevolent spirit in an old New Hampshire farmhouse and an exorcism that’s going to make you want to hide.

I really need to remember not to read these kinds of books when I’m alone at night. Bob Curran’s book, “Werewolves,” contains some of the finest, scariest artwork you’ll ever see and his history takes a little of the scare out of the legend.

But just a little.

Despite the occasionally overdramatic prose in The Ghost Chronicles, I read a bit and turned on another light … read a little and checked the closet … and read some more and moved away from the window.

If you’re looking for something to get you in the mood this Halloween, you can’t go wrong with either (or both) of these books. Werewolves and The Ghost Chronicles put the “Eeeeeeeeeee” in “creepy.”

Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was three years old and never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books. Readers with questions or comments may write to her in care of this publication.