The Eye in the Graveyard Read online

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  COVER

  TITLE PAGE

  INTRODUCTION

  THE LIBRARY

  CHAPTER ONE: THE HEAVY BAG

  CHAPTER TWO: THE GLASS EYE

  CHAPTER THREE: INTO THE TOWER

  CHAPTER FOUR: THE SINKING

  CHAPTER FIVE: LOSING THE EYE

  EPILOGUE: NOTES FROM THE LIBRARIAN

  A PAGE FROM THE LIBRARY OF DOOM

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

  GLOSSARY

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  WRITING PROMPTS

  BUILDING THE LIBRARY

  EXPLORE MORE

  COPYRIGHT

  BACK COVER

  quickly, the librarian races up the stairs.

  He can feel the tower sinking beneath his feet.

  If he doesn’t reach the door soon, he will be buried alive . . .

  THE LIBRARY

  Real name: unknown

  Parents: unknown

  Birthplace/birthdate: unknown

  Weaknesses: water, crumbs, dirty fingers

  Strengths: speed reading, ability to fly, martial arts

  The Library of Doom is the world’s largest collection of strange and dangerous books. Each generation, a new Librarian is chosen to serve as guardian. The Librarian’s duty is to keep the books from falling into the hands of those who would use them for evil.

  The location of the Library of Doom is unknown. Its shelves sit partially hidden underground. Some sections form a maze. It is full of black holes. This means someone might walk down a hallway in the Library and not realize they are traveling thousands of miles. One hallway could start somewhere under the Atlantic Ocean and end inside the caves of the Himalayas.

  There are entries to the Library scattered all over the earth. But there are few exits. Sometimes villains find their way into the vast collection, but the Librarian always finds them out!

  — From The Atlas Cryptical, compiled by Orson Drood, 5th official Librarian

  CHAPTER ONE

  THE HEAVY BAG

  Ghostly moonlight shines on a vast graveyard.

  A thin shadow moves through the graveyard, bending the grass.

  It is the Librarian. He drags a heavy bag behind him.

  A dark bird sits on a gravestone. Its eyes shine like drops of ink. Carefully, it watches the Librarian pass.

  The Librarian wipes the sweat from his forehead. Tired, he leans against a tall gravestone.

  He looks down at the name carved into the stone. He reads Here Lies the First Librarian.

  The Librarian bends down and then grabs the bag again.

  Inside the bag is something heavier than anything he has carried before.

  It is an evil book.

  He has brought the book here to bury it.

  CHAPTER TWO

  THE GLASS EYE

  The Librarian looks across the graveyard.

  He sees five dark shapes above the grass.

  At the top of the tallest shape is a bright, round eye.

  The Librarian has heard stories about the Eye of the Graveyard.

  From one of the stories, the Librarian remembers strange words:

  “To escape the darkness A man must lose his eye.”

  The Librarian’s bag grows heavier. It falls to the ground.

  A cloud passes in front of the moon. The bright eye grows dim and disappears.

  Behind him, the Librarian can hear the black bird croaking.

  The Librarian moves closer to the tall, black shapes.

  The cloud drifts away from the moon.

  The eye opens again. It gleams like silver.

  The Librarian laughs to himself. The eye is really a glass window in a high tower.

  CHAPTER THREE

  INTO THE TOWER

  The Librarian stops smiling. This tower is the one he has been looking for. The evil book will be buried inside the tallest of the five towers.

  The book grows heavier inside the bag.

  The Librarian can barely drag it through the door in the tower’s side.

  Steep, curving stairs lead down. At each step, the book inside the bag hits against the stone.

  Boom! Boom!

  Echoes shake the shadows.

  The Librarian reaches the last step at the bottom of the tower. He is dripping with sweat.

  He drops the bag and looks around him.

  He is standing at the entrance to a gigantic tomb. A tomb for books.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THE SINKING

  The Librarian takes two gloves from his belt and puts them on. Then he pulls the dangerous book from its bag.

  In the center of the tomb is a stone table. The Librarian sets the book on the table and chains it into place.

  The Librarian stares at the evil pages. He takes a deep breath. The book can never leave this place.

  It will never harm anyone again.

  Then the table shakes. The tomb shudders

  The book is shaking.

  It breaks its chains and snaps the locks. The stone table is crushed beneath the book’s great weight.

  Then the tomb shivers again.

  The graveyard tower is sinking!

  The evil book is pushing it deep into the ground.

  Quickly, the Librarian races up the stairs. He can feel the tower sinking beneath his feet.

  If he doesn’t reach the door soon, he will be buried alive inside the tower.

  He reaches the top of the stairs, but he is too late. The doorway has sunk below the ground.

  Worms and bugs fill the space.

  He is trapped inside.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  LOSING THE EYE

  The Librarian hears a croak. He looks up and sees a bird’s shadow on the wall high above him.

  Where does the shadow come from?

  The Librarian remembers the window, the glass eye. He remembers the words of the story.

  “To escape the darkness A man must lose his eye.”

  The Librarian runs up the stairs of the tower as it sinks into the graveyard.

  He reaches the top.

  He covers his face with his arms. He throws himself against the window.

  It shatters into a thousand pieces. The eye is lost.

  The Librarian has escaped the darkness.

  With a horrible rumble, all five towers sink into the ground.

  Weary and wounded, the Librarian lies nearby. He turns over on his back to face the sky.

  A breeze blows through the graveyard. The black sky begins to turn blue.

  Somewhere, a bird begins to sing.

  EPILOGUE

  NOTES FROM THE LIBRARIAN

  Some books are dangerous without ever being opened. Beware anything written by the outlaw author, Nocturna Tome. She places curses on the covers of her books. If a reader simply says the title out loud, something terrible will happen. If the reader rubs their hand along the book’s spine — it’s too late. I have seen Tome’s victims turn to stone, shoot up into space, or disappear in sudden storms of falling frogs.

  Tome wrote the book in this adventure. I can’t tell you the title, but it was an atlas that showed all the evil places on the planet. I couldn’t afford to have anyone open the book, touch it, or read its words aloud. It was too dangerous even for the Library of Doom. Now the book lies buried in the graveyard in the sunken tower beneath the earth. There are no marks showing where the tower once stood. The secret of its resting spot will die with me.

  A PAGE FROM THE LIBRARY OF DOOM

  EPITAPHS

  Epitaphs (EP-uh-tafs) are the words found on a gravestone or memorial that tell something about the person buried there. Here are a few.

  Underneath this stone

  Lies poor John Round,

  Lost at sea and never found.

  First a cough

  Carried me off,

  Then a coffin

  They carried me off in.

  Here lies what’s left

  Of Lester Moore,

  No Les

  No more.

  Here lies Pecos Bill,

  He always lied

  And always will,

  He once lied loud,

  He now lies still.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Michael Dahl is the prolific author of the bestselling Goodnight Baseball picture book and more than two hundred other books for children and young adults. He has won the AEP Distinguished Achievement Award three times for his nonfiction, a Teachers’ Choice Award from Learning magazine, and a Seal of Excellence from the Creative Child Awards. Dahl currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

  ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

  Fernando Molinari was born in Argentina and has worked as an illustrator and art instructor. He has illustrated magazines, CD covers, comics, graphic novels, and books (including Anne Rice’s Lasher). His artwork has been shown in various galleries and museums throughout the United States, as well as in The Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires. Molinari has won numerous awards and has also appeared on TV to discuss his art and demonstrate his techniques.

  GLOSSARY

  croak (KROHK)—

  a deep, scratchy cry or call

  gleam (GLEEM)—

  to shine

  rumble (RUM-buhl)—

  a low noise that sounds like thunder

  shatter (SHAT-ur)—

  to break into lots of smaller pieces

  shudder (SHUD-ur)—

  to shake quickly with fear
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  vast (VAST)—

  very big or gigantic

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  Why do you think the Librarian drags the book inside a bag instead of carrying it by hand?

  The graveyard is a creepy place, but is it dangerous? Why or why not? Is there anything in the story that gives you a clue that the Librarian might get into trouble in the graveyard?

  When the Librarian is trapped in the tower, he looks up and sees the shadow of the bird. The shadow reminds him of the window. Do you think the bird was trying to help the Librarian on purpose? Why or why not?

  WRITING PROMPTS

  The book inside the bag is evil, but we don’t know how it is evil. What makes the book so dangerous? What happens to people when they read it? Write your own ideas about the heavy book.

  What would have happened if the Librarian never jumped out the window? Would he be trapped forever? Or would he have found another way to escape?

  Read the epitaphs on the facts pages (pages 38 and 39). Then write your own epitaph for an imaginary person who has died. It can be funny, serious, or even scary.

  BUILDING THE LIBRARY

  Some words from author Michael Dahl

  When I lived in Charleston, South Carolina, I visited a haunted neighborhood in the heart of the old city. The 180-year-old St. Philip’s Church covered almost an entire block. A ghostly priest was often seen on the front steps at night. Some evenings he climbed the tower and rang one of the bells. Across the street in a graveyard, the girlfriend of Edgar Allen Poe lies buried. People have seen a dark shadowy figure gliding among the gravestones.

  I had been performing in a theater a few blocks from the church. After the shows, I had to walk past the graveyard on my way to the parking lot. Breezes stirred the hanging moss on the trees. Tall grass shivered between the tombstones. One night I saw a stooping, shadowy figure. Was it Poe visiting his girlfriend? That eerie graveyard and the haunted church tower crept into my brain, sank into my imagination, and eventually grew into the setting for this adventure.

  Library of Doom is published by Stone Arch Books,

  A Capstone imprint

  1710 Roe Crest Drive

  North Mankato, Minnesota 56003

  www.mycapstone.com

  Copyright © 2018 Stone Arch Books

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on the Library of Congress website.

  ISBN: 978-1-4965-5528-1 (library binding)

  ISBN: 978-1-4965-5534-2 (paperback)

  ISBN: 978-1-4965-5540-3 (eBook PDF)

  ISBN: 978-1-4965-9297-2 (eBook)

  Summary: The Librarian delivers an evil book to a tall tower in a mysterious graveyard.

  Designer: Brent Slingsby

  Photo credits:

  Design Element: Shutterstock: Shebeko.

 

 

  Michael Dahl, The Eye in the Graveyard

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