A Halloween Ebook for Kids Ages 9–12: The Lanterns of Lost Things

Sep 30, 2026

Cover art for The Lanterns of Lost Things: Pipkin carries a glowing lantern and Puddle's fishbowl into a moonlit Halloween town.

Some Halloween nights are full of treats. Others leave you with a mystery to solve.

In The Lanterns of Lost Things, a bell rings thirteen times over a town glowing with autumn lanterns. Pipkin, a small traveler with a brass lamp, and Puddle, his goldfish companion, follow the strange sound into a place where people are beginning to forget what matters most.

Pipkin and Puddle beneath the great clocktower as lanterns rise over the town. — A town of floating lanterns hides a mystery beneath its great clock.

A Halloween story for curious readers ages 9–12

The new Pipkin & Puddle ebook is an original, richly illustrated Halloween story for readers who enjoy eerie magic, clues, brave choices, and a little tenderness among the shadows. Pipkin and Puddle visit a bustling autumn market, search for answers in a tower of impossible doors, and discover that the town’s mystery reaches deeper than a missing object.

Pipkin and Puddle follow a clue through an autumn Halloween market. — Every encounter at the market may bring a clue—or a new question.

Make a choice. Find a different ending.

This is a branching, choose-your-path adventure. Decide which clue to follow, whom to trust, and when helping someone is worth the risk. Details collected along the way can open new routes, and four distinct endings reward careful reading, courage, and kindness. Readers can begin again and see how a different choice changes the night.

Pipkin faces three enchanted doors in the town’s impossible tower. — Three strange doors lead toward very different truths.

The story invites families to talk about memory, loss, and what we owe one another. Eerie magic, peril, grief, and memories of loved ones appear in the story, so grown-ups may want to read alongside younger or sensitive readers.

Pipkin, Ada, and the Keeper reach the heart of the clockwork tower. — At the heart of the tower, Pipkin must decide what should be kept.

Two ways to read, plus activities

The illustrated edition includes a printable PDF for page-by-page reading and an interactive HTML version for making choices on screen. Six printable activities invite readers to map their route, gather clues, write a scene, and reflect on the story. Historical notes at the end point curious readers toward Halloween traditions that inspired parts of the fictional journey.

An original Halloween ebook for ages 9–12
Four reachable story endings and meaningful branching choices
Full-color cover and illustrated story scenes
Printable PDF and interactive browser edition
Six activities and historical reading notes

Pipkin, Puddle, Ada, and the Keeper welcome a lost toy boat home at dawn. — After a long night, one ending brings the lost boat back into the light.

Meet Pipkin & Puddle’s new story

The Lanterns of Lost Things is an original Pipkin & Puddle adventure made for autumn reading, family story time, and readers who like their mysteries with more than one way through. The ebook is being prepared for the Pipkin & Puddle shop; visit the Pipkin & Puddle store for imaginative play, and check the Dreamland Journal for release news.