Thirteen children sat in a circle and dared the shy one to tell a ghost story. He made one up. When the lights came back on, there were fourteen children in the room.

Every legend had a first night.

There's a boy in every class photograph at one school going back thirty years, and he is always eleven years old. There's a fourth door in a bathroom that only has three stalls, and something behind it has been knocking since 1978. There's a school kitchen where the Friday soup makes you remember something wonderful — and one afternoon a new cook uses the whole tin.

Thirteen scary stories for readers aged 9–12.

These aren't retellings of urban legends. They're the stories of how each one started — what actually happened, to a real person, before anybody knew there was a rule.

And every one of them leaves you with a rule of your own:

▪ If your classroom has a desk nobody sits at, leave it where it is.
▪ If you hear knocking from an empty stall, don't ask it anything. Just tell it you're there.
▪ Never eat anything that isn't on the menu.

Inside:
▪ 13 complete stories, 10–20 minutes each — one per night
▪ 13 full-page black-and-white illustrations
▪ A hidden mystery running through all thirteen, solvable only if you read every one
▪ Real chills and real consequences — no gore, no violence, nothing that needs a grown-up in the room

New to the series? Start here. The Beginning stands completely alone — but it's also where everything in 13 Stories After Dark comes from.

Perfect for confident readers, reluctant readers, sleepovers, campfires and long dark car journeys.