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Overview

World-renowned master storyteller and New York Times bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark's first picture book is a ghost story set on the Cape Cod coastline and the high seas, and a story of friendship between two boys.

Thomas loved his summer visits to his grandmother's on Cape Cod. He spent hours wondering about the sailing ships of the past and imagining their stories. He dreamed of being on a sailing ship himself. One afternoon after a night of terrible thunderstorms, Thomas finds, deep in the sand, a weathered, old-fashioned belt buckle. When he picks it up, a boy his own age, Silas Rich, who was a cabin boy on a ship called the Monomoy that sailed almost 250 years ago, appears. Suddenly the world of sailing ships is very near as Silas tells his tale.

Beloved and bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark tells a story of mystery and adventure that will transport readers to a time and place beyond their imaginings in her first book for children. Wendell Minor's inspired paintings make a time long ago very real.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781416935148
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Publication date: 04/03/2007
Series: Paula Wiseman Books
Pages: 40
Product dimensions: 10.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range: 6 - 10 Years

About the Author

About The Author
The #1 New York Times bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark wrote over forty suspense novels, four collections of short stories, a historical novel, a memoir, and two children’s books. With bestselling author Alafair Burke she wrote the Under Suspicion series including The Cinderella Murder, All Dressed in White, The Sleeping Beauty Killer, Every Breath You Take, You Don’t Own Me, and Piece of My Heart. With her daughter Carol Higgins Clark, she coauthored five suspense novels. More than one hundred million copies of her books are in print in the United States alone. Her books are international bestsellers.

Wendell Minor has illustrated dozens of picture books, and his work has won countless awards and is in permanent collections of such institutions as the Museum of American Illustration and the Library of Congress. His cover illustrations have graced some of the most significant novels of our time by authors such as Toni Morrison, David McCullough, and James Michener. He lives in Washington, Connecticut. Visit him online at MinorArt.com.

Hometown:

Saddle River, New Jersey and New York, New York

Date of Birth:

December 24, 1929

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Education:

New York University; B.A., Fordham University, 1979

Read an Excerpt

Ghost Ship


By Mary Higgins Clark Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books Copyright © 2007 Mary Higgins Clark
All right reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4169-3514-8


Chapter One Summer had begun and Thomas was visiting his grandmother who lived in a very old house in Cape Cod that had once belonged to a sea captain. Sometimes she told him stories about the great sailing ships that had come to Cape Cod many years ago from all over the world. She told him that in the old days when a storm suddenly began, a ship trying to reach harbor would be driven into the rocks and sand bars, where it would break up and sink.

Thomas loved to hear the stories. He wondered about the sea captain who had built this house more than two hundred years ago. He wondered if that sea captain ever lost a ship in a storm. He thought about that a lot.

One day Thomas went down the long flight of stairs from the lawn to the beach. He had promised his grandmother that he would not go too near the water until she joined him. His grandmother knew that Thomas would never break his word.

There had been a heavy storm the night before. The wind had whipped the waves until they slammed halfway up the stairs before crashing back onto the shore. Now the beach was littered with shells and rocks that had been washed in by the sea. Thomas began to sift sand through his fingers. The sand was damp, but he liked that.

Sometimes after a storm he would find unusual things that had been in the ocean. Once he had even found a small ring. His grandmother said it wasn't valuable but that it looked as though it had been in the ocean for a long, long time.

He wondered if after the big storm last night it was possible that he would find another ring. Or maybe he'd come upon an unbroken shell. If he did find one, he would put it up to his ear and listen, because shells hold the sound of the sea.

But then, suddenly, his fingers felt a hard metal object. He had to dig around it to set it free. It was much heavier than a shell. It looked very, very old. He ran his fingers over it and began to rub the sand and salt from it. But it was like trying to rub cement off a wall. He looked around and reached for a big rock and began to try to scrape the crust off whatever it was he was holding in his hand.

(Continues...)



Excerpted from Ghost Ship by Mary Higgins Clark Copyright © 2007 by Mary Higgins Clark. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Interviews

A Conversation with Mary Higgins Clark

Q: Your adult books are worldwide bestsellers. What made you decide to write a children’s book?

A: Wendell Minor is my good friend and did the covers of four of my novels. We happened to be at a party together. His editor was with him and said half jokingly, "You two should write a book together." We instantly decided it was a good idea.

Q: Were there particular challenges in writing for children?

A: Not really -- I always told my children stories. I have six grandchildren and eleven step-grandchildren, so I guess I have been telling stories for a while.

Q: For this project, you collaborated with your longtime friend Wendell Minor, who illustrated Ghost Ship. How do you know each other?

A: Wendell Minor did the cover for my first suspense novel, Where Are the Children?, which changed my life. I believe that his haunting, Edward Hopper–like cover contributed to its success.

Q: What was it like to collaborate with an illustrator? Did you determine what would be illustrated?

A: When Wendell received the text of the story, he called me to say that for him the text was very visual. He is a magnificent illustrator and I was delighted with every one of his sketches. They are truly works of art.

Q: Ghost Ship is set on Cape Cod. Why did you pick Cape Cod as the setting for your picture book?

A: I have been going to the Cape for the last forty years. The minute I stepped off the plane that first day, I felt as though I had lived there before. I have had a home there for thirty years, and it is a spirit-lifting retreat. A young cousin visiting from Ireland once said: "Mary, when you close your eyes in death and then open them in heaven, you'll find yourself in Cape Cod."

Q: When did you first realize that you wanted to be a writer?

A: I knew it as a child. The first thing I wrote was a poem, when I was six. I still have it. It’s pretty bad, but my mother thought it was beautiful and made me recite it for everyone who came in. I am sure the captive audience was ready to shoot me, but that kind of encouragement nurtures a budding talent. From the time I was seven, I also kept diaries. I can read them now and look back at what I was like at different ages. No one has seen them -- they are locked in a trunk.

Q: What early experiences influenced you?

A: I grew up in the Bronx, where my father was the owner of Higgins Bar and Grille. When I was eleven years old, I had a terrible shock. Coming home from early Mass one morning, I found a crowd of neighbors outside the house. My father had died in his sleep. My mother went on to raise me and my two brothers alone. When I had said good night to my father, I didn't know it was for the last time. His sudden death jolted me into awareness of the fragility of life. My mother's example taught me resilience. The protagonists of my novels are strong and resourceful women -- when calamity strikes, they carry on.

Q: When did you start your writing career?

A: Soon after my marriage to Warren Clark, I signed up for a short story writing course at New York University. Six years later and after forty rejections, I sold my first short story in 1956 to Extension Magazine for one hundred dollars. I framed that first letter of acceptance.

Q: What was your first book?

A: After Warren Clark's death in 1964, I went to work writing radio scripts and, in addition, decided to try my hand at writing books. My first book, a biographical novel about George Washington, Aspire to the Heavens, was inspired by a radio series I was then writing called "Portrait of a Patriot." Originally published in 1969 by Meredith Press, it seemed destined for obscurity. Its discovery years later by a George Washington descendant led to its reissue in 2002 by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association and Simon & Schuster with a new title, Mount Vernon Love Story, and became a bestseller.

Q: What made you turn to the field of mystery and suspense?

A: One of the best clues about what to write is what one likes to read, and I had always loved reading suspense. I decided to see if I could write a suspense novel. My first one, Where Are the Children? published by Simon & Schuster in 1975, became my first bestseller and marked a turning point in my life and career. It is now in its seventy-fifth edition and was reissued in hardcover as a Simon & Schuster classic.

Q: Having reached the pinnacle of success, could you visualize a life of leisure?

A: Somebody once said, "If you want to be happy for a year, win the lottery. If you want to be happy for a lifetime, love what you do." That's the way it is with me -- I'll always keep writing.

Q: Do you plan to do more children's books?

A: Yes. Wendell and I already have our heads together on the next one.

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