Ghosts in the House!

A young witch-girl moves into her new house at the edge of town in Kazuno Kohara's Ghosts in the House! (The Haunted House in Britain), promptly setting out to "neutralize" its ghostly inhabitants. Soon those whispy white critters have been put to "good" use: as curtains, sheets and table-cloths...

Like the friend who put me onto this - I wouldn't like to say she recommended it, as her reaction was rather mixed - I was immediately drawn in by Kohara's Halloween-appropriate artwork, with its bold, block-like illustrations in black, orange, and gauzy white. The story is simple, with only a few words per page, and will keep young readers (and listeners) involved. Although I can see why some other reviewers were dismayed by the (possible) show more subtext of Ghosts in the House!, with its narrative of "the other" being forced to change, I read it as pure wish-fulfillment fantasy, in which the wild and frightening is domesticated. And I mean "fantasy" in the psychological sense: something transgressive, transformative, and most definitely not meant to be true. show less

This has become one of my very favorite picture books. This artist is a genius; her use of block prints with the tissue paper cut-out ghosts is so textural and somehow both innovative and classic at the same time. The storyline also has that magic of some of the best children’s literature, where the narrative doesn’t make any sense and doesn’t need to but instead possesses almost a dream logic that speaks directly to some deep and fun-loving part of my mind.

Obvious tie-in for this one: Halloween storytimes! I'd accompany it with a printmaking project where you use styrofoam and blunt pencils to make your "plate," then print it with rolled ink.

A girl moves into a new house and finds it already inhabited by ghosts. No problem for her; she's a witch! But she's the sweetest around and makes a happy job of ridding the house of the ghosts. She catches them, puts them in the washing machine, hangs them on the line, and finds other purposes for them. Curtains! Tablecloths! Blankets! They are all able to happily coexist after the girl takes charge. Illustrations of black and white woodblock prints on orange paper, give a rustic and warm feeling. The stunning simplicity of both visual and text lead this to be a NYT Best Illustrated Book of the Year (2010).

This is a nice silly and simple book about a girl who moves into a haunted house. *Spoiler Alert* She is actually a witch and has some creative solutions to get rid of the ghosts. The images are woodblock prints so they are really simple and engaging. Some of the pages are a little wordy but for the most part there are really short easy to understand sentences on each page. The sentences are also very easily skipped so if the baby user has a different idea about what page you should be on it will still be a complete story.

This review originally published at The Children's Book and Media Review

A little girl goes to live in an old house at the edge of town, but the house is haunted. It’s a good thing that the girl isn’t just any girl. She’s also a witch! She knows how to catch ghosts, which is a good thing because she has quite a few that she needs to catch. She puts them in the washing machine and then hangs them on the clothesline to dry. Afterwards, they become great curtains, tablecloths, and blankets so that they can all live happily ever after.

This book has a great mix of Halloween fun that combines scariness with sweetness. The illustrations are all orange, black, and white, creating a Halloween feel with the contrast. The text is very simple, show more but the illustrations make the book more amusing. Some people might have a problem with how the witch transforms the ghosts to suit her needs, but the ghosts look smiling and happy in their new roles. This book should please even very young Halloween fans. show less

17 months/29 months - Love love love the illustrations and the story. I can't even imagine reading supremacy into this story, but I guess you can warp the cutest of things into something horrible if you try hard enough. I saw this as a scared little girl and her cat move into a new (to them) big house and instead of letting it get to her she takes charge and dresses up to be a witch with her costume (and a black cat costume for her kitty) and conquer her fears... Ghosts aren't real, they're just sheets that, with a good washing, can be used for drapes, table clothes or bed sheets.

I rather liked this book: clever, if not striking. It sort of hangs together on the single idea of creating ghosts by layering japanese paper over woodcut pictures with an orange background. The graphical style is very clean and simple, and a bit retro, maybe in the manner of [b:Meg and Mog|1067693|Meg and Mog|Helen Nicoll|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1315920946s/1067693.jpg|1054352]. It's quite lovely. And yes, the story line is fairly creative too, with the little witch taking the ghosts for what they essentially are, flurry pieces of white cloth that have simply gotten out of control. An innocent, non scary take on the ghost story. Didn't like it quite enough to rate it four stars, but I'd still highly recommend it for show more the little ones. show less