The Ghosts who Danced and other spooky stories from around the world

All sorts of ghostly happenings and characters come alive in this compilation of 10 tales from around the world. From America comes the story of the burning ship that forever haunts the seas after mutiny on board, and from Russia the story of the ghostly wild dogs that protect the traveller from a swarm of snarling wolves in the snow-laden forest. Meet Patrick from Ireland who plays the fiddle to the merriment of the dancing ghosts on Halloween night and the tree ghost from East Africa who’s livid with rage when his bananas are stolen.

Funny and sad, generous and vengeful, the characters are as varied in temperament as they are in shape – a warrior, a skull, a mask – and their reasons for haunting mere mortals are plentiful. Curiously, they behave for the most part according to the moral values of the living, and, acting within these parameters, they become sympathetic rather than irrationally scary, which makes them all the more interesting, human and profound.

The mood and tempo constantly change from one story to the next, so encouraging the reader to travel further across the world. Beautifully written and filled with patterned language, the stories read well aloud.  As rich as the stories are the illustrations that vary from vignette and cut-out to full-page bleed. Colours too are ever changing, with bold, contrasting colours often indicating comic situations and mischievous characters and a delicate, harmonising palette of greys, greens, blues and lilacs enveloping the kindlier spirits and encapsulating the gentler moods.