Oliver Jeffers' work takes many forms. His distinctive paintings have been exhibited in galleries worldwide, and HarperCollins UK and Penguin USA publish his award-winning picture books, now translated into over 30 languages.
In 2007, Jeffers was the official illustrator for World Book Day, and in 2008 Lost and Found became Oliver's first book to made into animation by London-based Studio AKA.
Jeffers won a NY Emmy in 2010 for his collaborative work with the artist and director Mac Premo, and in 2013 Jeffers co-directed the video for U2's Ordinary Love with Premo. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, Jeffers now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
As a horror fan and a parent of a four year old I run into the occasional problem. My daughter will see me reading a book and ask if I can read it to her or at least tell her what it is about. "No, I'm sorry, but I really do not wish to traumatize you" is not a satisfactory answer, so we usually avoid the topic as much as possible. That said, whenever I find a "spooky" children's book, I have to see if she will enjoy it and thus share with her something I love in a not so scary fashion. Thus why I picked this up as a blind buy hoping it would be something she liked...
Well now, I officially have a new favorite children's book. The book follows a little girl who has been living in her house for a very long time and is convinced there is a ghost. She asks you to follow her and tell her if you see one. There are many ghosts in the house though, maybe more than you'll notice in your first read through.
This is a brilliantly done picture book with a genius design. On the left side of the pages is a picture of the mansion with text on the right page, but you will notice quickly that there is a thin clear page between the two that when turned reveals the ghost(s) of the mansion page.
This one absolutely delighted my daughter who loved seeing the ghosts "appear" as we read. She loved how the ghosts are playful (jumping on a bed or hiding from the girl and laughing) rather than scary. While there's not a lot of story to this, it's so playful and fun that I found myself smiling to.
It's also a lot cleverer than some give it credit for and for this I actually have to get out the spoiler tags.
Yes, this is a rare example of a picture book that I honestly think couldn't be any better than it is. A rare 5/5 stars.
A picture book by Oliver Jeffers that has a few things to recommend it, though trying to find ghosts in a vacant house is by no means original; 1) it is drawn by Jeffers, and yeah, he's good; 2) the ghosts can be found for the most part on transparencies throughout; 3) Jeffers used pages from a book depicting an old mansion for the book, I liked that, and 4) the girl that cluelessly leads us on her hunt for ghosts and never sees them (but every kid can! yay! we win!) seems rather ghost-like herself. . . . hmm. . . a Halloween book for littl'uns!
Fun interactive book about a haunted house. A little girl takes you through the rooms and a transparent page that has 'images' of ghost between the pages then appears on each page! Very clever way of making the ghosts 'haunt' the rooms; small children will enjoy this trick! This is a great Halloween book!
This is a gorgeous, mixed-media picture book, with illustrations added to photographs of an old-timey Victorian-style mansion, with somewhat transparent overlay pages that encourage a rather pantomime like reading experience.
The main character spends her times looking for ghosts in her house, and the reader can look at places in the image where they think ghosts might be hiding, before turning the overlay and discovering their hiding spots. This encourages an interactive reading experience, with young readers wanting to call out "they're BEHIND you" as the character searches high and low for ghosts.
As an artist, I love the style of using found media and adding a story to it.
This is not a book. This is a piece of art. Kudos to the creators for meticulously piecing this together.
Kids Book. Unique. Cute horror. Nice illustrations. Big sized. Excellent publishing quality. Impeccable. Only wish it had more than just a few words; a better story - which seems to have vanished like a ghost!
Overall: The kind of art which makes for a good Halloween gift. Not for seasonal readers.
How can you not love this book? I had so much fun with my 7 y.o turning pages after pages. I love the idea of the author using trace/oil paper that when you flipped the page onto the fully printed one, you can see the ghost silhouette.
But I hope my son don't get the idea there's actually that kind of ghosts around him! hahaha 馃ぃ
This was adorable, beautiful, and super fun for kids to find the ghosts! The transparent overlays were such a unique and clever way to reveal the hiding spirits who were very cute and not at all scary. I was totally charmed!
A wonderful book about a girl who believes ghosts exists, but never seen one, will we see one on our trip through her house?
Oliver Jeffers is back and I could finally read this book that I had been eyeing since it came out shakes fist at Amazon and hugs her library for having the book in Dutch in November
In this fun book we are visiting a little girl who thinks that her big old mansion is haunted鈥� yet she never has seen a ghost. So is there a ghost? Well, yes, girl there is a ghost! And done in a wonderful creative way! You know those translucent pages you often get in books for your photographs? Well, you got them here as well. On the normal page we follow the girl as she tells us about her house, tells us about the sounds she hears or the weird things happening. And then if you put that gorgeous translucent page over that normal page. BOOM ghost or ghosts. Staring through banisters. Hiding under the bed when our girl gets near. Rattling some chains. And more. It was just such a delight. One page normal and then boom it is paranormal. While you would think that you can easily spot the ghosts on the translucent page, that really depends on your light. For most I didn鈥檛 see them until they got closer to the page and that was definitely fun! That made it all the more a surprise. And I had so much fun seeing our girl talk about wanting to see the ghosts, wondering about the haunting, and then see the ghosts do their thing.
Each page was just a delight and I laughed, giggled, and wish I could just step in. Maybe as a ghost or maybe as the visitor. I think both would be fun. XD
I loved the illustrations and I loved that they were done on photographs/adverts from stuff. It really made for a fun experience. The ghosts were really nicely drawn, I loved how they looked.
The ending and the fact it went even to the endpapers was just A-plus plus plus. I had not expected the story to end like this (but had hoped for it) and then it even goes further. I laughed and I love it!
All in all, Oliver Jeffers did it again! I got this book from the library but I will definitely be buying the book for my own collection because this is just way too fun and allows for plenty of re-reads! I would highly recommend this book to all!
鈥淗allo. Kom maar binnen. Ik heb al een tijdje geen bezoek meer gehad. Misschien kun je me helpen?鈥�
Een klassiek spookverhaal over een huis waar het misschien spookt, heel misschien hoor, want het hoofdpersonage heeft nog nooit een spook gezien. 鈥淚k weet eigenlijk niet eens goed hoe een spook eruitziet.鈥�
Het spookt in dit huis is een nieuw prentenboek van de altijd fantastische Oliver Jeffers. Waar foto鈥檚 uit een klassiek voelend landhuis gecombineerd worden met doorzichtige bladzijdes waar de leukste spookjes op getekend staan. Een knap metafictioneel boek waar niet de voorlezer of het verhaal, maar de luisteraar een grote rol speelt.
Everything about this is wonderful. The house is perfect, the transparent ghost pages are genius. I just love it. I know a picture book is really good when I want to rip it up to frame pages
What a jewel this picture book by Oliver Jeffers is! A blue-haired girl laments that she has lived a long time in what everyone says is a haunted house, and, yet, she鈥檚 seen no ghosts! She鈥檚 looked and looked, and yet鈥�.
Thanks to Jeffers鈥� cleverness and some transparent pages, readers will see the mischievous but cute specters who delight in hiding just out of the little girl鈥檚 sight. You鈥檒l even catch some of them teeheeing about their playful prank! Kids will adore this book, but their grownups will appreciate the book鈥檚 wizardry even more.
Me gusta mucho Jeffers pero este 谩lbum me ha sabido a poco. A nivel gr谩fico est谩 bien con su combinaci贸n de fotograf铆a, dibujo y las apariciones de los fantasmas a trav茅s de p谩ginas transparentes. Pero la historia, a pesar del giro final que se insin煤a, es demasiado sencilla. Y dir茅is: es un 谩lbum para ni帽os. Pues s铆, por eso hay que dar m谩s. Y Jeffers casi siempre lo da.
Oliver Jeffers ingeniously uses vellum throughout this book as a way to overlay pages so that, in a brilliant use of dramatic irony, the reader sees the ghosts but the main character does not. I can鈥檛 wait to read this one to my students.
This story had potential, but the opaque pages that have the ghosts on them often interrupted the flow of the story, and took away from the humor when it made the page it was overlaying hard to see. Just having the ghosts on the page would have been a better effect, and led to less times re-reading the same page twice on instinct of turning a page. I was also not a fan of the abrupt ending. It left the silly little tale feeling rather unresolved.
Just so cute馃ズ I love ghosts and I love Oliver Jeffers art style. The use on the clear paper is super unique!! I鈥檓 excited to recommend this to everyone and staff pick it at work:)