by Moe Zilla

Created on: May 01, 2010

It had been 35 years since Robert Bright first created the character of Georgie, the friendly ghost. It was 1944, back in World War II, when Bright first introduced children to his simple ink drawings - and then continued leading the ghost through a series of unlikely adventures. There were stories for Christmas and Halloween, and child-friendly stories about the ghost fighting robbers or travelling out west. Finally in 1979, he came up with another title which promised more wholesome excitement: "Georgie and the Buried Treasure."

Georgie lives with Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker, and he also has two animals friends. (There's an owl named Miss Oliver, and also Herman the Cat.) But part of the fun of Bright's books is he always adds in some extra animals. There's two mice that watch Georgie from the top of the staircase - and he gets a tip about their neighbor's unusual digging activity from the neighborhood rabbits!

Georgie decides to bury some treasures from the attic so his neighbor will have something to dig up! He gets some help from his rabbit friends, but discovers his neighbor is more interested in finding money. To send a message, Georgie buries an empty treasure chest - that contains a springing jack-in-the-box! The neighbor's wife laughs, and the neighbor gives up digging treasure. But then there's a dire plot twist - giving Georgie the ghost a chance to save the day.

The Georgie books are always a little more complicated than most children's books, but the rambling stories can be genuinely surprising that build up to a few moments of fun. In Georgie's house, the Whittakers are worried about running out of water. And meanwhile, their neighbor has been told to dig for buried treasure where it sees the owl hooting. Georgie convinces his owl friend to hoot on the shovel near the site for a new water well. Sure enough, the neighbor digs and digs - and soon the Whittakers have enough water after all!

Unlike some earlier Georgie books, here there's no extra color tinting in Bright's drawings - just his usual rich shadowing in his lush black-ink drawings. He draws in lots of details, like patterned wallpaper and an ornate banister in the first picture showing Georgie descending a staircase. When he switches to a drawing of their porch, there's a leafy tree in their neighbor's yard under an inky black sky with big stars.

And every character in the book is drawn simply - but with an enthusiastic smile on their face.

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