Why Do You Cry, Sad Ghost?

Perfect for this Halloween!

I am so impressed with everything about this book!

It feels like we are reading a really good graphic novel. The artstyle is outstanding. Absofreakinglutely love it!

Kudos to the artist.

And yes, the whole book is so much fun to read.

There's a pang of nostalgia and solitude to it. Yet a pretty good one.

Thank you, author/artist and the publisher for the ARC.

What a whimsy Halloween rhyme picture book for tiny humans. With pop culture reference in the beautiful illustrations and the quirky rhymes, this was a short, fast and yet, adorable read. Perfect to get your tiny ghouls ready for the Spooky Season.

With imaginative illustrations and beguiling rhyme, we follow Sad Ghost on his quest to discover the reason for his lament. Each illustration is a story in and of itself. From a candy corn rug, to haunting silhouettes, there are small touches here that speak to Jones’s attention to detail and perceptive mind. This is a book to be treasured that will appeal to adults and children alike. This is worthy of being a Halloween classic.

This book is adorable, with pictures that have quirky details that a child would be delighted to find. It would also be good for teaching rhymes if you do plan to use it in an educational capacity. It's a bit too young for the students I teach, so I wouldn't be using it in my classroom. Could be cute with younger kids.

It's spooky season (almost)!. Why do you Cry, Sad Ghost? Is a children's book with an unidentified narrator asking the sad ghost why it's sad. The words are written in rhyme which will likely appeal to children. The illustrations are fun and don't shy away from being more on the scary side which will appeal to the people reading this book to children. Overall it was cute.

What a truly special book! One of the best children's books I have seen, undoubtedly! I adored the gentle rhyme and the momentum of the story, as the unseen narrator queries the "sad ghost" protagonist as to why it is sad. You can just hear its resignation to sadness as it responds to each query, and then its awakened delight at the end. The illustrations are endearing and so is the text. I shared the ARC with my 9-year-old granddaughter who also enjoyed it.

If you've read any of my other recent book reviews, you will already know that every book I read starts off with the full 5 stars and that I always hope it'll finish with 'em all still in place too.

I'm taking a risk with this book 'cos ghost books usually give me nightmares for several days afterwards, but as this is a picture book and the ghost on the front looks like a cartoon and I'm reading it in the afternoon instead of close to bed time, I'm hoping I'll get away with it this time ;-)

I've been OK with the first two pages... I'm wondering about the word choice of "complexion" though, 'cos a small child wouldn't have even heard the word before, let alone know what it meant and might have to interrupt the person reading it to find out, so it's a wobbly star already unfortunately, just not for the reason I was thinking is all.

The author has used complexion again on the next page, along with another new word, frail, that small children wouldn't have a clue about either... the star is currently clinging on by the tips of it's fingers.

Not sure I approve of the image on page 3 - the way that the adult male is chugging from a bottle makes me think it's a bottle of alcohol and the character drinking it is drunk... not a good image for a child unfortunately. A second star is wobbly now.

Now the author has chosen a third word that such small children wouldn't understand, so that's the first star gone.

"Utmost" is used on the next page... I realise that the author is trying to introduce new words, but using four new words in four pages is a bit much, especially as there's no explanation of what each of the words mean within the book!

Now we've got the image of a man in his undies, a can on the floor, bottle on the table and a bowl of popcorn which is screaming alcoholic to me unfortunately. Like with the words, the images have one more chance otherwise the second star is coming off.

Just finished reading the book and thankfully there weren't any more inappropriate images for such a young audience, so the book finishes with four stars... it's like the author has been desperate to find rhyming words and those words and images have been too advanced for such a young audience.

It's a good book, but at 40 pages long (the industry standard, in the UK at least, is either 28 or 32 pages), the word choices and a couple of the illustrations, are just not appropriate for a Picture Book unfortunately.

A very sweet Halloween story of a sad ghost. The illustrations was beautiful! Great timing for the Fall season too.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my free copy in exchange for my review.

I really enjoyed this sweet Halloween story. I liked looking for the little mouse on each page to see where he was hanging out, and the flow of the story was just right. I think it has lovely illustrations, and the story is one that will appeal to children of all ages.

I am always looking to add holiday books to my elementary school library. This is a sweetly illustrated story of a sad ghost. The ghost is seemingly adult sized and some of the depictions (visiting their own grave) are unusual for a children's book. An unseen narrator keeps asking "Why do you cry, Sad Ghost?" and there are various rhyming replies. It is geared towards younger readers (K-3) and I could read it to all ages in my library. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.