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A review by barry_x
All About Ghosts by Christopher Maynard, Reece Shearsmith
4.0
This book was a fixture of libraries in the UK in the late 1970's and 1980's and I suspect many readers who were children in this time will remember how captivating, enthralling and genuinely creepy this book was.
I was certainly one of those kids and it's notable that as soon as I saw this book had been reissued I was instantly taken back to the illustrations in the book, my memory scarred for over thirty years by the images within.
The book is PERFECT for children's imaginations - I'd say ages 8-12 are just right for this. My eight year old is a really good reader for her age and I think she'd be fine (but terrified). I did buy this as a Christmas gift for my eleven year old but it's notable that I spent an hour with it this morning reliving my own childhood terrors!
It's a short book (31 pages) and covers 'what is a ghost' then jumps into different types of ghosts (things like haunted houses, ghost animals, ghosts from non-Western cultures). The book then has a couple of sections on investigating ghosts and spotting fake ghosts.
It is the illustrations that make the book though - each of them are lurid, and captured in a 1970's pallette of oranges, browns and yellows with some great drawings of sinister and threatening ghosts. They are at just the right level to capture a child's imagination - I loved them!
The foreword is by Reece Shearsmith and I wonder if this reissue is aimed more at people like me revisiting childhood. I showed a page to my eight year old and she seemed far more rational about phenomena than I was at that age (or now...). I do hope my youngsters enjoy it though and it gets them like it got me.
A minor point is that when writing about ghosts outside the UK some of the language reflects the standards of the time (this was originally published in 1977). There are a few references along the lines of 'North American tribes' and similar. non-Western cultures wouldn't be referred to in the same way (hopefully) in children's fiction today.
That said, I had a lot of fun re-engaging with a classic from my youth and I hope my kids love it too.
I was certainly one of those kids and it's notable that as soon as I saw this book had been reissued I was instantly taken back to the illustrations in the book, my memory scarred for over thirty years by the images within.
The book is PERFECT for children's imaginations - I'd say ages 8-12 are just right for this. My eight year old is a really good reader for her age and I think she'd be fine (but terrified). I did buy this as a Christmas gift for my eleven year old but it's notable that I spent an hour with it this morning reliving my own childhood terrors!
It's a short book (31 pages) and covers 'what is a ghost' then jumps into different types of ghosts (things like haunted houses, ghost animals, ghosts from non-Western cultures). The book then has a couple of sections on investigating ghosts and spotting fake ghosts.
It is the illustrations that make the book though - each of them are lurid, and captured in a 1970's pallette of oranges, browns and yellows with some great drawings of sinister and threatening ghosts. They are at just the right level to capture a child's imagination - I loved them!
The foreword is by Reece Shearsmith and I wonder if this reissue is aimed more at people like me revisiting childhood. I showed a page to my eight year old and she seemed far more rational about phenomena than I was at that age (or now...). I do hope my youngsters enjoy it though and it gets them like it got me.
A minor point is that when writing about ghosts outside the UK some of the language reflects the standards of the time (this was originally published in 1977). There are a few references along the lines of 'North American tribes' and similar. non-Western cultures wouldn't be referred to in the same way (hopefully) in children's fiction today.
That said, I had a lot of fun re-engaging with a classic from my youth and I hope my kids love it too.