Hardly Haunted

There is a house on a hill, a big house that creaks and groans. It is dark. The yard is overgrown. Spooky trees surround it. The house is for sale, but no one comes to live there. Maybe, the house thinks, it could be HAUNTED! It can’t hide what it looks like, but the house wonders if it holds very still, maybe the doors won’t creak. If the house holds itself very tight, maybe the stairs won’t squeak. Maybe the pipes won’t rattle. So the house tries very, very hard to be perfectly still, but then the leaves rustle and the trees scratch and the wind howls. Will the house ever find a family to live in it?

This fun book is perfect for autumn reading. Author and illustrator Jessie Sima has written a fun and spooky story, but the illustrations might well be the star of this book. The house is so cute that little ones will easily buy into the personification. It is certainly not too scary for the youngest of listeners. They will love finding fun details in the illustrations and will find the story engaging. This is an absolute winner.