Award-winning author to publish a spooky book for children

The Beach at Night is 38 pages long, with color illustrations by Mara Cerri, and is intended for readers ages 6 to 10, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The book, originally published in Italy in 2007, is a spinoff of “The Lost Daughter,” one of the author’s lesser-known early novels, in which a teacher goes on vacation in a coastal town and steals a doll from a child. In “The Beach at Night,” the doll isn’t stolen.

Instead, she is abandoned by her young owner to face nighttime terrors such as the Mean Beach Attendant of Sunset and his friend, the Big Rake.

“It’s certainly no scarier than a ‘Hansel and Gretel’,” said Michael Reynolds, editor in chief of Europa Editions, the U.S. publisher.

The book will arrive in stores in December—the perfect holiday present for children who likescary books.

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