by Moe Zilla

Created on: October 02, 2010

"Three Little Ghosties
sat on their posties,
eating burnt toasties,
telling big boasties."

Don't worry, they're funny-looking ghosts, with crooked bubble eyes and wide lines for smiles. The smiles go all the way across their oval-shaped bodies, giving them an expression like they're more interested in having fun. Each ghost's sheet has a wavy bottom edge, making them look like grey, floating Pac-Men. And the story opens as "Ghostie Number One" describes startling a classroom of bubble-eyed ghouls.

"I went to scare ghoulsies,
sitting in their schoolsies,
learning spelling rulesies.

I went wooooo, woooo, woooo, wooooo, boooo!"

The rhyming text follows its simple pattern, while the illustrations set a tone that's strange and lively. Using elaborate mixed media drawings, Annalaura Cantone starts with dull background colors like grey or brown, though the second drawing uses a stark red that reminded me of the gothic curtains you'd see in a horror-movie castle. The appearance of the white-eye ghosts always liven up each drawing, and she sometimes adds a special inset circle. This lets the reader see the three ghosties, whose silly faces are always laughing as they remember their haunting pranks.

"I scared some mean witches,
sitting in dark ditches,
lipsticking their lipses,
plotting evil trickses.

I went clank, clank, shiver, shake, Booo!"

This looks like it'd be a fun book to read out loud to children. Yes, you might have to explain to them the concept of a ghost, but the book's cute, fictitious spooks are more like children playing a prank. Ghostie Number Three frightens an enormous ogre, and then the group of ghosts fly off to terrorize the book's young narrator. But the book's ultimate message is that the pesky, playful spooks are just as afraid of us. Instead of being scared, the young narrator turns the tables and startles the ghosts by sitting up in his bed, and shouting out "Booo!"

"They tumble-tangle fled out from my bedroom and into the night...."

The rhyming gets a little ragged sometimes, but the story is very well-paced. The quick flashbacks establish that these ghosts a.) like to scare people, and b.) like to brag about it. With their goofy faces, they're almost begging for a comeuppance. In the end, it's the children who are empowered, as the three ghosties return to their posties now wobbling with fear. They suck their thumbs, and wait for their mothers, who come and scold them, and then send them home to bed.

The illustrator even dedicated the book "To all children who are afraid of the dark, with love"

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.