Haunted Library

Locked in the library after dark, a kid discovers that the book characters come alive at night — and they need help getting home.

Your name is Sam Delgado, and you are the biggest bookworm at Millbrook Elementary. While other kids spend their afternoons at the skate park, you are curled up in the beanbag corner of the Millbrook Town Library, devouring every story you can get your hands on.

'You're here AGAIN?' your friend Tasha said yesterday, walking past with her skateboard. 'It's SUMMER, Sam.'

'I know what summer is,' you said, turning a page. 'Summer is more reading time.'

The librarians all know you by name, and Ms. Huang even lets you shelve returns sometimes. 'You know the Dewey Decimal System better than half my interns,' she told you once, which is the best compliment you have ever received.

The library is your favorite place in the whole world, a quiet kingdom of stories where you feel perfectly at home. Tonight you stayed a little too late reading. The last thing you heard was Ms. Huang calling, 'Closing time!' from somewhere near the front desk. 'One more page,' you whispered. 'Just one more page.'

You must have lost track of time, because when you finally looked up, the lights were off, the door was locked, and a strange golden glow was leaking from between the books on the far shelf. 'Uh,' you whispered to the empty library. 'That's new.'