SOLVED. Children's "Horror" Short Story Collection From the 1990s. [s]

[James]

I read a collection of short stories when I was at primary school in about 1998-2001. It was a in the "horror" genre and I get the feeling it was one of maybe several collections by the same author. I think the collection was fairly recent when I read it.

I remember one or two of the stories.

One of them is a story about ghosts set in and around a lighthouse.

In another, the protagonist of the story has a speech impediment that means immediately after he says something, he has to say something like "On a boat" or "With a boat" or something similar.

The final story I remember has a boy and a dog. If I remember correctly, the dog becomes translucent - you can see through his fur and skin. People are horrified, and the boy and dog escape into hiding somewhere and they wait until the dog becomes normal again. I think when they return back to civilisation, the rest of the world has become translucent,

That's all I can remember and I've been trying to find it again for years. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Mo]

Hi! These sound like stories by Paul Jennings? His book Unreal! contains a story called 'Lighthouse Blues' which sounds like the ghosts/lighthouse story. And there's a story called 'Without a shirt' where the protagonist has to say "without a shirt" at the end of every sentence.

The final story sounds like 'Clear as Mud' in which a boy becomes translucent and goes into hiding in the woods - this is in the book Undone!

[James]

Hi Mo. That's it! You've found it!

I've been looking for years. Thank you so much!

[Mo]

Glad to help! I loved those books as a kid :)