Bedtime for Boo by Mickie Matheis illustrated by Bonnie Leick

Boo is so excited for his first night of haunting. He's the littlest ghost in his ghost family, and he's looking forward to all the spooky swirling, whistling, and flying like all the big ghosts do. When his mom tells him that it's time for bed, Boo isn't tired! His mom suggests that he listens to all the sounds in the house to help him get to sleep. Will listening to all the rattling and whooshing help Boo drift off to dreamland?

When I think of ghosts, I don't tend to think of them crawling into bed! But as the cover promises, that's just what happens in this spooky bedtime story. The story is more comforting, though, than truly scary; Boo the ghost takes comfort in the noises that are familiar to him (and, in a neat twist, are also the noises that could keep an anxious child up at night). The bedtime routine is one that could work on human kids as well as ghost kids. I enjoyed the spooky-sweet mix of Bonnie Leick's illustrations, and I might be imagining things but I thought I saw a shout-out to Madeline in the book's first few pages of text. This could easily become a Halloween favourite, yet I can also see it being a popular bedtime book for ghost-loving kids all year long.

Learn more about illustrator Bonnie Leick at her website.

I received an advance review copy from Edelweiss courtesy of Golden Books (Random House).

Find it at IndieBound.

Read it with:
Kai-lan Loves YeYe by Mickie Matheis
Wolf Camp by Katie McKy
Blossom and Boo Stay Up Late by Dawn Apperley