The book is brilliant in its confirmation of an essential truth of childhood, but that doesn’t make it any less unsettling,...
A lad is tormented by existential boojums every night in this comically eerie variation on a common bedtime trope.
No sooner do his parents bid him sweet dreams and switch off the light than the ceiling becomes “a black hole…black and infinite”—through which float small creatures of diverse shape who stand around his bed and stare at him fixedly. At last, the arrival of a slit-eyed blot that reaches out with twiggy tentacles and whispers, “I am what there is before there is anything there,” sends him pelting toward the parental bedroom. “It’s just your imagination,” soothes his mother, oblivious to the creature that floats into view on the last page. Liniers depicts the grown-ups from neck down to create a child-level perspective, but his dot-eyed, angst-ridden protagonist could be any age. Heavily crosshatched shadows and nighttime visitors with mildly grotesque features add appropriately spooky notes. Snuggling between parents (“But this is the last time”) banishes those boogeymen, right? Wrong.
The book is brilliant in its confirmation of an essential truth of childhood, but that doesn’t make it any less unsettling, though possibly more for adult readers than for children . (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-55498-385-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Ghostly fun for the gentlest of readers.
Newly arrived with his parents in seemingly quiet Kersville, an anxious young Latine boy discovers that his new house isn’t quite as normal and boring as he’d hoped.
This graphic reboot of the opener to a proliferating series of early chapter books dispenses with most of the explication but sticks closely to the original’s plotline and dialogue. Hardly has Andres Miedoso—who shares a name with the tale’s author—had time to unpack before a flurry of weird noises and events sends him hurrying over to consult with his grinning, brown-skinned new neighbor, who earlier handed him a business card provocatively labeled “Desmond Cole, Ghost Patrol.” Yes, there’s a ghost in Andres’ house—a jagged, seething cloud of ectoplasm that makes a terrifying first impression…but then gleefully chows down on some unfortunate lasagna and, after paying the gastric price, admits to being a sad, lonely specter searching for a permanent home. By the end, all three have bonded, Andres has a card of his own, and the stage is set for further supernatural exploits. The illustrations are closely based on those in the book’s antecedent, with the addition of bright colors that nicely show off Desmond’s big personality—and the massive green sliming Andres gets when the ghost upchucks all over him. The chills are, if anything, even lighter than the original’s, and the fresh format may draw some new fans.
Ghostly fun for the gentlest of readers. (Graphic ghost fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9798347100811
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Younger readers will wish that they could toss their heads…or at least that they knew someone who could.
A lonely zombie makes new friends just by being herself—on Halloween.
Quelled by Auntie Departed’s warnings, young Ghoulia has always confined her outdoor play to the walled grounds of Crumbling Manor…until she eavesdrops on some living children and learns about Halloween. Taking advantage of this perfect opportunity to fit in, she sneaks out with her albino greyhound (and gifted hairdresser), Tragedy, for some trick-or-treating. Hearing her name as “Julia,” the costumed children welcome her. But when they compete to see who’s the scariest, Ghoulia forgets herself and does her “special scary move,” tossing her head in the air and catching it in one hand. The children stand wide-eyed through no fewer than three illustrations on three successive pages—and then welcome her with wild delight and agree to keep her secret from the grown-ups. From then on they become regular visitors to Crumbling Manor. In full-color pictures that take up all or most of every page, Cantini depicts her undead urchin Tim Burton–style, with stitched lips, gray skin, and purple shadows beneath huge eyeballs (everyone else appears white—or sheet white). Assisted by suggestive labels (“Creaky steps”; “A spider visiting from the attic”; “Painting of Grandad Coffin”), the manorial setting has an Addams Family vibe and provides just the right spooky setting for this series opener. Halloween-themed activities are included in the backmatter.
Younger readers will wish that they could toss their heads…or at least that they knew someone who could. (Fantasy. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3293-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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