Meet Jack Dahlgren

Hi, my name is Jack Dahlgren. I’m the main character from C.K. Volnek’s Ghost Dog of Roanoke Island, a ghost story for tweens.

I’m almost 13 years-old. I like to remind my dad of that. He treats me like such a baby.

My dad moved us to this beach house on Roanoke Island about two months ago from Ohio. I wasn’t too happy about leaving the only home I’d ever known. But Dad had been out of work for over a year there. So when my Great-grandma Ellis left us the house on Roanoke Island, Dad went to scope it out. He found a job in nearby Manteo and that was all she wrote. He up and moved us, not even asking if it was okay by me.

I can’t say I like Roanoke Island. None of the kids at school want to have much to do with me, always teasing me about the creepy Ellis house. They say it’s haunted. The beach house is pretty run down and Dad is either at work or working on the house. Never has any time for me. He won’t even let me go exploring the woods or the bluff ... not since Kimmy’s accident.

Kimmy’s my little sister. She’s six. She’s in the hospital after falling off the bluff and hitting her head three weeks ago. Dad blames me for her accident. I’d do anything to take it back. I didn’t know she’d followed me up there! But Dad blames me for it. Guess he’s right, because I wasn’t supposed to be up there in the first place.

Mom has been with Kimmy since she fell. I wish she would come home. Seems like I’m always in trouble with Dad. He’s so mad at me. He promised I could get a dog when we moved to the island. But he hasn’t mentioned it since the accident. But I’ve got to find a way to make him let me keep that big Mastiff I seen on the bluff. That Mastiff must need a good home and he’ll be a great dog to have around. He already saved me from whatever that thing was I came across in the cave.

The kids don’t seem to want to know me, but I did meet Manny, a 30-something Native American Indian. He’s really cool. He’s going to teach me how to whittle. He also seems to know what this creature is from the cave and said he’ll help me figure out how to stop it.

Manny says that thing is an evil creature conjured up a long time ago, from when the first colonists landed on Roanoke Island in 1587. I learned that 117 colonists disappeared back then...disappeared without a trace. I think this creature has something to do with it.

Manny says that I am the only one who can stop this thing. I have to find out why. But first I have to figure out what it is and why it’s here. It’s pretty scary but if I don’t stop it, it will continue to haunt the island and kill more people.

Maybe if I can stop it, Dad won’t be so mad at me about Kimmy’s accident anymore. It could show him I’m responsible and grown up.  I’ve got to stop it...before it stops me.

Ghost Dog of Roanoke Island, by C.K. Volnek. Due out September, 2011 by MuseItUp Publishing.