Title Blackbeard's Ghost Series --- Author Ben Stahl Cover Art Disney Publisher Scholastic Books Services - 1970 First Printing --- Category General Warnings None Main Characters Blackbeard, J.D., Aldetha Stowecraft Main Elements Ghosts

"Aumm, Aum, Aum...Mananan verbum fohat...kali yug! Oh, come to us, ghost of Blackbeard, the greatest pirate that ever lived!"

J.D. chanted the magic spell...and behind him appeared a huge figure wreathed in smoke, with wet strands of seaweed hanging from his shoulders. Aldetha Stowecraft's spell had worked! J.D. had conjured up Blackbeard's ghost!

If you don't like being scared, don't worry. This isn't a horror novel, on the contrary, its quite funny at times. Blackbeard cannot be seen by anyone except the two boys who had summoned him, but he's quite solid. Between eating popcorn, getting drunk, trying to walk down a busy street and saving his precious tavern, Blackbeard doesn't have much time to cause trouble. Yet he manages to do that as well. The book is a little dated, with Hank expressing "Jeepers" from time to time. Otherwise good for kids as well as adults.

As you can see by the rather battered cover of my copy, Disney made a movie based on the book. I know I've seen it but it was so long ago I don't remember much about it, so no comments till I can rent it again :) If you look in the top-right corner, you'll note that there was actually a time when books cost only 60 cents (though that was a few years before I was born).