The Little Ghost

First published in English in 1966, this quirky and charming story of little Ghost’s foray into the daylight hours, has been reissued in its original translation and with its original illustrations. The gentle and humorous tale, by a much-loved German author who died earlier this year, follows the little Ghost’s unintentional mishaps and misdeeds and the punctured self-importance of the adult authority figures he meets, whether an invading Swedish general or the functionaries of Eulenberg, a market town still living cosily in a past of street markets, folk costume, dray horses and brass bands, all perfectly captured in F J Tripp’s delightful black and white drawings. Preussler’s and Tripp’s characterisation of the little Ghost with his handful of magic keys still has its appeal, despite the array of ghosts, comic or otherwise, that children might meet now in books. The story and Anthea Bell’s translation are perfectly pitched for newly independent readers and good for reading to even younger children, who will also enjoy the detail in Tripp’s illustrations. Andersen is to be congratulated on reissuing the book exactly as I remember it almost fifty years ago.