Post by Mark T. Locker.

Ghosts in the House! by Kazuno Kohara

As my kid gets older, the books I am exposed to are geared towards older and older kids. Occasionally I need to remember to look backwards and find great books for younger kids. As the time of the year demands an eye towards the spooky, it’s important not to overlook the little kids who like the idea of ghosts and goblins but cannot abide actually scary spooks. That’s where books like Ghosts in the House! come in handy. It’s super Halloweeny without being scary at all. Even though, like the title suggests, there are indeed ghosts in a little girl’s house, it’s really quite okay. In fact, it’s downright adorable. The girl is a witch, so she’s totally cool with ghosts. However, they still need to be dealt with. After all, we can’t have ghosts floating about all higgledy-piggledy!

So the witch and her cat gather up all the ghosts, run them through the wash (don’t worry; a window in the washer shows the ghosts are having a fine time in there) and put them to work as curtains and tablecloths.

Simply illustrated black and white images on orange pages add to the Halloween feel of this very simple and very cute story. If you have a little one in your life who likes spooky stuff but doesn’t like to be actually scared, Ghosts in the House! is a great choice. Read it to them in bed and rest assured they won’t have any scary dreams as a result!