The Book that Dripped Blood Read online

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  COVER

  TITLE PAGE

  INTRODUCTION

  THE LIBRARY

  CHAPTER ONE: THE GOLDEN HINGES

  CHAPTER TWO: THE STOLEN BOOK

  CHAPTER THREE: BEHIND THE DOOR

  CHAPTER FOUR: THE PAPERBACK

  CHAPTER FIVE: THE COLLECTOR

  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

  ink from its pages oozes out and covers the floor.

  The puddle of ink grows larger.

  A tall, dark shape rises . . .

  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 GOLDEN HINGES

  A young man hurries down a dark street. Cuts and bruises cover his face. His left arm is in a sling.

  In his right hand, he carries a package tied with thick rope.

  At the end of the street, he finds what he is looking for. He walks into a small bookstore.

  An older man, bent and wrinkled, stands behind a counter.

  “Do you buy used books?” asks the young man.

  “What do you have?” asks the old man.

  The young man throws his package down on the counter.

  The old storekeeper unties the thick rope and opens the package.

  “Is this made of fur?” asks the old man.

  “Look at the spine,” says the younger man.

  The old man turns the book on its side.

  Two yellow hinges hold the book together.

  “They’re made of gold,” says the young man. “How much will you give me for it?”

  The old man pulls out a handful of cash and hands it to the young man. The young man turns and runs out the door.

  The old man looks closer at the shaggy cover. He brushes the fur aside and reads Claws.

  A few moments later, a young woman on the street hears a man screaming inside the bookstore.

  CHAPTER TWO

  THE STOLEN BOOK

  The young woman rushes inside the bookstore.

  A pair of legs stick out from behind the counter.

  The woman hears a man moaning in pain.

  “Get it away from me!” says the bookseller.

  The woman’s eyes follow the direction that the man is pointing.

  She sees a strange book lying on the counter.

  She picks up the book.

  The gold hinges gleam.

  “This is beautiful,” she says to herself.

  “Help me,” moans the bookseller.

  The woman clutches the book to her chest, and then she hurries out the door.

  CHAPTER THREE

  BEHIND THE DOOR

  The young woman rushes into her apartment building.

  The landlord sees her from his door. “You owe me rent,” he calls out to her.

  She hurries into her apartment and shuts the door behind her.

  A few minutes later, the landlord climbs the stairs to the woman’s apartment. Her rooms are dark.

  The woman is missing.

  The landlord sees a dark puddle on the floor. Next to the puddle lies a furry book.

  The landlord picks up the book. “Ow!” the man yells and drops the book.

  He sees the book slowly open.

  The pages fold themselves into sharp, rounded points.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THE PAPERBACK

  The landlord backs away from the book on the floor. He bumps into a table. A paperback in his back pocket falls to the floor.

  Ink from its pages oozes out and covers the floor.

  The puddle of ink grows larger.

  A tall, dark shape rises from the bubbling ink.

  The ink forms into the shape of a man.

  It is the Librarian.

  He has been waiting inside the pages of the paperback.

  He knew that the furry book would come to this apartment building, but he did not know when.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  THE COLLECTOR

  The book leaps into the air. Its golden hinges open as it flies toward the Librarian’s throat.

  The Librarian ducks, and the book slams against a wall.

  With another roar, the book flashes its teeth. It darts across the floor and grips the Librarian’s leg.

  The Librarian screams.

  The landlord is scared. He runs into the hallway and down the stairs.

  Suddenly, the front door of the building swings open.

  A young man rushes in.

  He is the same man who sold the strange, furry book to the bookseller.

  “Where is the book?” the young man demands.

  The landlord points up the stairs.

  The Librarian has pulled the book off his leg. Blood drips onto his shoe.

  He snaps his fingers. A small blue flame bursts from his hand.

  The book backs away from the flame and crouches in a dark corner.

  The door bangs open. It is the young man.

  “That is mine,” he says, pointing to the furry book.

  The Librarian looks hard at the man. “The Collector,” he mutters.

  “Yes,” says the man. “And I am here to collect my book.”

  “That book belongs to the Library of Doom,” says the Librarian.

  “It needs to be free,” says the Collector. “The book is hungry.”

  “And each time the book feeds,” says the Librarian, “the more powerful you become.”

  The Collector smiles. He pulls another book from his pocket and throws it through a window.

  The new book hangs outside the window and grows larger.

  Quickly, the Collector jumps onto the floating book.

  The flying book soars away from the apartment building. It disappears into the shadowy city.

  “The battle is not over yet,” the Librarian says to himself.

  He picks up the landlord’s old paperback from the floor. The title reads The Book that Dripped Blood.

  Then the Librarian sinks back down into the book.

  Waiting.

  EPILOGUE

  NOTES FROM THE LIBRARIAN

  Claws was once located in the Ungula Caves of the Library of Doom. Those caves are protected by steel walls ten-feet thick. They’re the home for books that scratch, rip, grab, and crawl.

  Claws has still not been found. The Collector has hidden it in his own private library. A library of books that he will use as an army to defeat his enemies. And I am his greatest enemy.

  The Collector used to work in the Library. He was smart and hardworking. His specialty was books that screamed, sang, or whispered. Some say he was driven mad by his books. I’ve heard a few of the pages whisper. They still give me nightmares.

  In the end, the Collector was greedy. I didn’t know how greedy until the day he disappeared from the Library. He had stolen two books. One was made of diamonds. The other was made of sand.

  A PAGE FROM THE LIBRARY OF DOOM

  RARE AND UNUSUAL BOOKS

  The world’s bestselling book is the Bible, with almost 2.5 billion copies sold since 1815.

  According to the Guinness World Records, the longest novel ever written is In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.

  The world’s largest book was made by Michael Hawley of the United States in 2003. It weighs more than 130 pounds and uses enough paper to cover a football field

  Some experts say the world’s smallest book is an edition of Chameleon by Anton Chekhov. The tiny book has thirty pages and is only a little bigger than a grain of salt.

  In 1939, Frank Siebert, a medical student, raised money to buy a rare book on American Indians by selling bottles of his own blood!

  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

  Bradford Kendall has enjoyed d
rawing for as long as he can remember. As a boy, he loved to read comic books and watch old monster movies. He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Illustration. He has owned his own commercial art business since 1983, and lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife, Leigh, and their two children, Lily and Stephen. They also have a cat named Hansel and a dog named Gretel. Sometimes, they all sit together to watch an old monster movie.

  GLOSSARY

  clutch (KLUTCH)—

  to hold tightly

  mutter (MUH-tur)—

  to speak in a low voice with your mouth almost closed

  snarl (SNARL)—

  to show your teeth and growl

  spine (SPAHYN)—

  the edge of a book that holds it together

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  The first person we see with Claws is the Collector. His left arm is in a sling. What do you think happened to him? Is there any clue in the book that tells you?

  The woman who heard the bookseller screaming took the book from the store. Why do you think she stole it? Explain your answer.

  At the end of the book, the Collector takes Claws back. So why do you think he sold the book in the first place? What was his reason? Is there any clue in the book that tells you?

  WRITING PROMPTS

  Pretend you work at the bookstore in the first chapter. Does your store have strange books? Write a list of what they are.

  The Collector grabs the evil book and escapes out the window. Where does he go? Write a paragraph to tell us what happens next.

  You are walking past a bookstore when you hear a strange noise inside. What happens when you enter the store? Write your adventure!

  BUILDING THE LIBRARY

  Some Words from author Michael Dahl

  I often make up fake titles when I’m trying to come up with ideas for books. I once made a list of titles combining books with parts of the body. Eyes? The Book that Wore Glasses. Feet? The Book that Ran Away. Blood? The Book that Dripped — yes! That started the idea that eventually turned into this book

  Like the heroic Librarian, all of my villains are connected with books — the Collector, the Eraser, the Spellbinder, Atlas. I’d like to create a bad guy who folds paper into weapons. The Origami Master? Origami Mummy? Or maybe one who traps people inside coffin-sized books. Buried Beneath the Covers? Book Ends? Luckily, there are as many adventures in the Library of Doom as there are books on its shelves!

  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: 978-1-4965-5529-8 (library binding)

  ISBN: 978-1-4965-5535-9 (paperback)

  ISBN: 978-1-4965-5541-0 (eBook PDF)

  ISBN: 978-1-4965-9298-9 (eBook)

  Summary: Can the Librarian stop a sharp-toothed book from attacking innocent people?

  Designer: Brent Slingsby

  Photo credits:

  Design Element: Shutterstock: Shebeko.

 

 

  Michael Dahl, The Book that Dripped Blood

  Thanks for reading the books on GrayCity.Net