Do your little ghosts and goblins have trouble going to sleep at bedtime? Local author/illustrator David LaRochelle, who has had close to 30 books published since he left teaching to pursue writing full time in 1988, was one of those kids, too. “When I was a little boy, I never wanted to go to bed,” he says, “and I was always thinking of excuses to go to bed later.”
Like many creative types, he turned his personal experience into art; specifically, a picture book for kids ages 5 to 9. In his 2011 release, The Haunted Hamburger and Other Ghostly Stories, two pint-sized ghosts ask their ghost dad to tell them spooky stories in an effort to postpone their bedtime. But what kinds of stories scare little ghosts? Why, people stories, of course.
“The things that are scary to ghosts are not necessarily scary to humans,” says LaRochelle, with a quick laugh. “The dad tells Franny and Franky wild tales about a scary baby, a haunted hamburger and a big, bad granny. The kids get more and more scared, but the stories get sillier and sillier.”
Besides being known for his writing and illustrating prowess, LaRochelle has gained fame for another Halloween-related talent: pumpkin carving. His jack-o-lanterns, which depict everything from dragons to witches to clocks, are true works of art and have landed him on national talk shows.
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You can purchase David LaRochelle’s books at amazon.com, any major book seller and Lake Country Booksellers. To see his artful pumpkins, visit his website.
