Ferryland Visitor: A Mysterious Tale

Ferryland Visitor: A mysterious tale

by Charis Cotter
with artwork by Gerald L. Squires

Shortlisted for the 2018 Rocky Mountain Book Award

"Esther followed her father into the hallway. A tall man was standing just inside the front door. Houndie sat at his feet, thumping her tail and looking up at the visitor with a big dog smile on her face. That was strange. Houndie took her role as a watchdog very seriously and always barked her head off any time anyone came near their old house. But this time she hadn't made a peep."

In the early 1970s, artist Gerald Squires moved, with his wife and two young daughters, into the abandoned lighthouse-keeper’s house in Ferryland, Newfoundland. Shortly after their arrival, they had a visitor who claimed to be the former constable of the area and regaled them with stories of the place and its previous occupants. A visitor, they soon learned, who was more than he appeared to be.

Using materials gathered in interviews with members of the family, Charis Cotter tells the tale of this mysterious visitor from the perspective of the youngest member of the Squires family. Cotter captures the delight of a curious young girl discovering her new landscape, the excitement of living in a lighthouse at the edge of the ocean, and the haunting mystery of the visitor himself.

Renowned artist Gerald Squires contributed already-existing paintings and several new drawings of the lighthouse and its surrounding landscape, as well as family photographs from the lighthouse years. The result is an illustrated storybook of great beauty—part family recollection, part art book, part ghost story.

Designed by Vesalina Tomova.

8 x 11 softcover, 36 pages. For readers 6 to 12.