There's a Ghost in This House

Decidedly unscary ghosts--the kind that look like sheets with holes for eyes--lurk in a house being searched by a green-skinned, pigtailed child in this novelty-leaning picture book. Welcoming the reader, the child begins, "I have heard... there's a GHOST in this house!" Peering over a porcelain bathroom sink, the figure continues, "Have you ever seen a ghost?" With the help of translucent pages that have ghostly images printed on them, readers can conjure the apparitions; on the bathroom spread, for example, one appears right behind the child, making a face in the mirror. Jeffers adds loose line drawings to found black-and-white photographs of an 18th-century mansion that has plenty of dark corners--the narrator climbs a library ladder, lingers in hallways, and peers in cupboards and under a bed. Since readers decide when the ghosts appear, anxiety-inducing suspense isn't an issue in this conceptually comic treat that puts the reader in control. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)

"Mr. Jeffers has pulled off quite a trick here: He has managed to turn Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" into a cheery, unthreatening seek-and-find for children."—The Wall Street Journal

"Unquestionably eerie but still light-hearted." —The New York Times Book Review