Weekly Reader book: "Haunted Houses"

Spooktober will be here very soon, so let's starting getting into the, ahem, spirit...

• Title: Haunted Houses 
• Author and illustrator: Larry Kettelkamp (1933-2023). He was previously featured on Papergreat in 2021 for his book Investigating UFO's. He died on October 1, 2023, and his obituary notes that he was "a quintessential renaissance man" who lived a long life filled with "unique twists and turns." He began as an illustrator but then, according to his obituary: "Realizing that he could write the informational children’s books he had been illustrating, Larry successfully proposed that idea to Prentice Hall publishing. It was the start of a long illustrious career as an author/illustrator of over 35 informational trade books for juniors and young adults. The subject matter of his books focused on subjects that piqued his interest ranging from poltergeists, to magic, to optical illusions. His books were to become ubiquitous in school libraries throughout the U.S. as well as staples of the ever-popular school book fairs." Many children of the 1970s are so glad he took that route! 
• Cover photo: The famous (to my generation, anyway) Tulip Staircase ghost photo taken by Rev. Ralph W. Hardy in 1966.
• Publisher: Weekly Reader Books
• Year: 1969 (Weekly Reader Books Edition published by arrangement with William Morrow and Company)
• Pages: 95
• Format: Staplebound paperback
• Chapter titles: The Tower of London, The Haunted Rectory, The Manor House Ghost, The California Ghost, The Ghost in the Music Building, The Ghosts That Were Photographed, Poltergeists of the Past, The Scottish Poltergeist, The Farm Poltergeist, The Bottle-Popping Poltergeist, The Store Poltergeist, Memories in Space, Separation of Consciousness, and Energy of the Mind.
• First sentence: Have you ever seen a ghost?
• Well?? I have not, as I mentioned last autumn while feeling especially cynical.
• Last two sentences: The ghosts of haunted houses and the pranks of poltergeists are fascinating subjects for study and speculation. Perhaps, also, they actually can give us clues to the nature of a larger reality than we ordinarily experience in our daily lives.
• Random passage from the middle #1: It has been suggested that our experience of time is, in part, an illusion. Time may be a dimension similar to length and width. That is, the past and future may have some shape, even though we see only the shape of the present. According to this idea, everything that existed in the past still exists. All events have shape and exist permanently. Although our consciousness must usually be concerned with the shape of the present, at times it may also notice the shape of the past.
• Whoa: Whoa, indeed. If you want to dive headlong into the ideas of Albert Einstein, Hermann Weyl and the nature of time, this Astronomy.com article is a good place to start down the rabbit hole.
• Random passage from the middle #2: Admittedly, poltergeists do not show up very often. But over the years hundreds of examples have been collected and reviewed over and over by a whole series of psychical investigators. Even modern science cannot fully explain some of these mysterious events.
• Rating on Goodreads: 3.6 stars (out of 5)
• Goodreads review excerpt: In 2017, Amelia Kibbie wrote: "The author was obviously well-researched and credits some paranormal researchers affiliated with institutions of learning in the foreward. A lot of his information seems to come from the famed parapsychology lab at Duke University. I'll be keeping this copy for my daughter to read someday."
• Rating on Amazon: 4.4 stars (out of 5)
• Amazon review:  In 2016, Grammie of Three wrote: "This book was my first exposure to ghost stories as a child. Looking back, I'm surprised that it was offered in our little Catholic school library sometime around the late 70's or early 80's. I bought this to share with our son, and nieces. Fun campfire short stories, but....be prepared for the nightmares, or having the munchkins in bed with you. lol"
• Comments from a July Vintage Paperback Books post on Facebook: "This book had true stories about ghosts in various parts of the world with really scary photos. I was always fascinated with horror and ghosts as a kid even though I was also quite scared of all of it." ... "I took it out of my school library many, many times!" ... "OMG! This book freaked me out when I was a kid!" ... "Because of this book and Carnival of Souls, I used to race up the stairs at top panic speed. I was certain the ghouls were grabbing my back." ... "Was this the one that included the story of Elke Sommer's house? That freaked me out." [Note from me: Yes, it does include Sommer's story.] 

Monkey "assisted" me on this post,  

to the extent that I typed much of it with one hand.