Review: The Ghost Who Lost Her Boo! by Elaine Bickell and Raymond McGrath (Illustrations)

The Little Ghost Who Lost Her Boo!

by Elaine Bickell, Raymond McGrath (Illustrations)

Release Date: August 18th 2020

2020 Philomel Books

Kindle Edition: 32 Pages

ISBN: 978-0593202159

ASIN: B081Y3HYJH

Genre: Fiction / Children

Source: Review copy from publisher

4.5 / 5 Stars

Summary

'I've lost my boo! I've lost my boo! Where has it gone? What will I do?' Little Ghost has lost her boo, but she is determined to get it back, so she heads out to look for it. On her night-time hunt she meets a number of her friends, Owl, Pigeon, Rooster and Cow, and asks each of them if they've heard her boo. None of them have but they are all very kind and offer Little Ghost their own sound instead. But none are as good as her own scary boo so she keeps on looking. In the end, it's the reader who finds it for her!

 

My Thoughts

The Ghost Who Lost her Boo! was such a sweet little children's book.  With captivating illustrations and a fun rhyming story to go with those illustrations, this is a book that little ones will devour.

 

Elaine Bickell has written a cute rhyming story that incorporates a number of animal characters that Little Ghost encounters as she searches for her lost boo.  On the surface, this seems like a fun search, there is a much deeper message here as Little Ghost explores a host of different sounds from the other animals, but realizes those sounds don't quite work for her and is not willing to just accept them and trade her missing boo for just any new sound.  She really liked her own personal sound and is not willing to compromise so will continue to search until she finds it.  There would be a lot to discuss with a young child regarding this concept and that appeals to me quite a bit.  

 

Another theme running through this story is one of determination, where you don't give up until you find what you are looking for, and sometimes you may need help to find it.  I really liked that theme, and again, it would be an important theme to discuss with children when reading this book.  As a teacher, I was even going through a list of questions and topics I would discuss with children after presenting this book to them.  

 

What I really adored in this book though, were the illustrations.  You have this relatively dark background full of mysterious things, and if you look closely, there is a lot to look at, something to which a child will pay a lot of attention.  Then you have these eye-popping colours of the animals which makes them stand out which I loved.  And Little Ghost was all in white, so explosive on the page.  I spent a few minutes checking out each page before continuing, admiring the illustrations, which is why I still read children's books to this day.  

 

Verdict

The Ghost Who Lost Her Boo! is a clever little story although I do feel the illustrations overwhelm the actual rhyming story, and I was content to just look at those beautiful pictures.  I even read the book twice just to look at them again.  I would highly recommend this little gem to any little child as there is a lot to discuss, plus the illustrations are beautiful.