Oliver Jeffers’ title is only a couple years old & I completely missed its original release date (day of the dead 2021), likely due to the quarantine. No matter, I paid the full $27.99 to bring this baby home.
A modernly dressed girl invites the reader into her old mansion, relating that there is supposed to be a ghost that lives in her house but she has not seen it ever! The joke is in the wax paper inserts. The hidden white bedsheet ghosts appear as the readers flip the pages. The book is a delectable lap read for its intricate architecture (the photos were taken from legitimate catalogues & some contain original captions), playful friendly ghosts, and flip-book-style furniture at the bottom corner of every right-handed page. Due to its mansion-like size, however, the volume makes a perfect classroom or story time option as well.
No doubt your little loved ones will fall in love with this title and will want to replicate hiding their own ghosts in wax paper! Yago y Mila loved the book & the exercise of drawing ghosts. I must attribute Mila’s newfound love for drawing to Oliver Jeffers’ title. She has been on a role since she got a chance to draw white ghosts on wax paper, mostly drawing our family over and over again on construction paper after that.
Through her drawings, Mila is showing, quite colorfully, one of the early literacy skills that prepare children to read and write: scribbling! I love that she color matches the “names” to the people she has drawn. In her mind she is writing Daddy, Mami, & Yago in the portrait below.
Before I even try to get her to write letters properly, I will allow her to explore her own “letters” so she gains confidence for the real thing! As you can see, she is already attempting some letter H’s in the drawing below, which she has reviewed with her preschool teachers:
So, how did we go from ghosts to early literacy? That is the power of books and reading! In the future I may write a post focusing on the five early literacy skills—reading, speaking, writing, playing, singing— but for now you should know that if you are reading to your preschool child every day, you are already exercising some of those skills!
This is a title that is very easy to translate & can be done on the spot! Definitely my number one choice and recommendation for this spooky season! I cannot wait to get my copy signed when & if Jeffers visits Houston. This title is popular enough for you to find or place on hold at your local library.
Biblioterika 