Bram Stoker's Dracula

Not for the faint of heart! Award-winning artist Gary Blythe brilliantly captures the eerie mood of Bram Stoker's uneasy tale, expertly edited for today's reader. Can there be a more terrifying tale than this? The story of the notorious vampire Count Dracula, lord of the undead, who rises from his coffin at night to suck the blood of the living is, undoubtedly, the stuff of nightmares. A lunatic asylum, a bleak Transylvanian castle, an ancient cemetary . . . these are the dark backgrounds to the even darker deeds portrayed in this most bloodcurdling of tales. Narrated from several viewpoints, DRACULA is a complex story that many know, but few have actually read. Jan Needle's newly edited version makes the gripping events accessible to the twenty-first reader without losing the incomparably chilling atmosphere of Bram Stoker's original novel.

Editor Jan Needle was a journalist and play-wright before turning to children's books. He is the author of several novels for children and has twice been short-listed for the Carnegie Medal. "I've always loved DRACULA," he says, "and I've tried to extract the brilliant core story from this complex book and glue readers to their seats." Jan Needle lives in Manchester, England.

Gary Blythe achieved immediate critical acclaim with his first children's picture book, THE WHALES' SONG, written by Dyan Sheldon, which was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal. He has since illustrated several children's books and says DRACULA is one of his favorites. Gary Blythe lives in London.