Amazon Rebecca Leonard - Adirondack Nightmare Rebecca Leonard's Home Page Category:  Horror Publisher: Leonard Enterprises, Inc. ISBN-10:  1934383147 Type: Fiction Pages: 88 Copyright: Feb 1, 2007 ISBN-13: 9781934383148 It's eighteen-year-old Will Durant's first time away from his home in Montreal. Traveling alone. He's rented a place on Raquette Lake in the heart of the beautiful Adirondacks in New York State. Will's looking forward to spending his favorite holiday, Halloween, canoeing and enjoying the beauty of autumn. But something is amiss in this place. Halloween candy is not for sale. Children are less than eager to trick-or-treat. The townspeople say that a few years ago, someone had the bad idea of taking a walk through an ancient cemetery... The ghosts of one Adirondack cemetery come alive again in autumn, as teenage Will Durant first collects ghost stories from several Raquette Lake residents, and then tests out his machismo in the graveyard—and has a ghost experience of his own. Adirondack Nightmare: A Spooky Tale in the North Country is a brief fiction ghost story aimed at "middle readers" (second through fifth grade)—and firmly rooted in a strong sense of the Adirondacks. Not only the plotline, but also the villages, sights, family names, and even local recipes in the book are drawn from North Country lore. The book was created by two lifelong area residents: author Rebecca Leonard, owner of Under One Roof Video store in Plattsburgh, and her 15-year-old son Nick, who illustrated the cover and interior as a college project. Excerpt This cemetery was not like any other cemetery I'd seen before. The trees were more barren, the grass not quite as green. The fallen leaves weren't colorful but were black and rotted. All of the gravestones were cracked and gray and unusually depressing. "Why am I scared?" I asked myself out loud. "There aren't any so-called spirits or ghosts or demons so what's the big deal?" To prove this to myself, and to the gloomy cemetery, I began to shout: "Come over here you stupid ghosts! Come on, are you afraid of an outsider coming into your depressing backyard? I'm not afraid of something that isn't even here!" By then I was really beginning to enjoy myself so I continued... "What, are you afraid of an 18-year-old man? You're all a bunch of nothings. Come out now, I dare you!" I started getting angry at the whole scene. "I won't waste any more of my time on you!" I hollared and started to walk away, flustered. AS I was walking out of the cemetery, I took one last look around the graveyard. "Hello?" I thought I heard someone call my name. Turning toward the sound, I screamed when I saw a horrifying and repulsive looking scarecrow standing beside one of the moldy gravestones.

Midwest Book Review
"Written by mother of two Rebecca Leonard and featuring numerous black-and-white computer-generated illustrations by her son Nick Leonard, Adirondack Nightmare: A Spooky Tale in the North Country is a Halloween adventure novel for young people new to chapter books. Enhanced with tasty original Adirondack recipes like "John and Mary's Best Michigan Sauce Recipe Ever" and "Caramel & Chocolate Covered Candied Apple Recipe", Adirondack Nightmare is goosebump-inducing treat from cover to cover. A great holiday mood-setting story for reading aloud chapter by chapter or allowing novice readers to immerse themselves in the spine-chilling joy of words."