Susan Dibble recently interviewed Kate on her new book, Haunted by History, and gave this report on the front page of the Neighbor section on April 21, 2009:

Naperville writer Katharine Kendzy Gingold is not really claiming some local sites are haunted ... but you never know.

"With so much history in these old places, how could they not be haunted?" Gingold says.

That's the premise behind her most recent book, "Haunted by History: Spectres in a Small Town."

Published last fall around Halloween, the book looks at five area sites that can be visited at Naper Settlement, Naperville's 19th-century living-history museum, and suggests ghosts with stories to tell might inhabit them.

For instance, did Illinois politician and Lincoln rival Stephen Douglas really see the nightly nursemaid in the settlement's Murray House - the home of Robert Murray, a lawyer, judge, sheriff and friend of Douglas?

Murray was the nephew of Naperville founder Joseph Naper and appeared in Gingold's previous book, "Ruth by Lake and Prairie," a fictionalized account of Naperville's founding written for young readers.

She's aiming at the same audience in this book, Gingold said.

"I'm continuing to look for ways to bring history to kids," Gingold said. "It seems like all kids like to read a good scary story. I thought this would be a good way to slip in some history facts."