Maw Books

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Hush, Baby Ghostling by Andrea Beaty and ilustrated by Pascal Lemaitre is the perfect bedtime Halloween book for the much younger set and one that won’t leave them frightened at all.

Mama ghost sings her sweet baby ghostling a soft bedtime lullaby:

Hush, Baby Ghostling.
The haunting hour is past.
The bats have ceased their swooping
and  the dawn is coming fast.

So nestle safe beside me
in our happy haunted home,
And dream a dream of darkness
where the wild monsters roam.

Mama leaves a bit of darkness in the hall, in case he’s scared of the light and will reassure baby ghostling that the songs and laughter is just the wind outside.  She’ll search the closet for that little boy with ten pink toes, blue eyes and golden hair who might give him a fright.

She sends him to bed with sweet kisses and dreams of hisses, howls, screeching owls, of bats and banshee cries. “Now dream a little nightmare while the ghoulies dance and sway. Dream a dream of darkness where the wild monsters play.”   The book ends with hugs, kisses, and the whisper of I Love You.

Although I like Pascal Lemaitre’s illustrations in Andrea Beaty’s other books like Firefighter Ted and Doctor Ted, I’m not a huge fan of the illustrations here.  It’s as though everything glows.  And maybe it’s supposed to?  But all in all, I can see past the illustrations to a cute bedtime lullaby. Great for those kids who will understand the turnabout of the words and how baby ghost is more scared of us than we are him!

Links of interest: Andrea Beaty website, Pascal Lemaitre website, Maw Books reviews of Firefighter Ted, more book blogger reviews.
Genre: Fiction Picture Book, approx age 4-8.
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry.  August 4, 2009
Hardcover 32 pages. ISBN 1416925457
Source: Review copy for 2009 Cybil’s nomination for which I was a panelist.
Hush, Baby Ghostling is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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