Today to honor this last week of October and therefore the week of Halloween, Caramel chose to review a book about a ghost and a girl who tried hard to get rid of him: Aggie and the Ghost by Matthew Forsythe, published originally in 2025. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.
Sprinkles: So Caramel, today we are talking about a book with ghosts because it is almost Halloween.
Caramel: Correction: One ghost! I mean at some point there are others, but the book is really about one ghost.
S: True. Okay, let us begin at the beginning. Tell us a bit about the book.
C: So this book is about a girl named Aggie, believe it or not.
S: Oh, I believe it. So then there should also be a ghost.
C: Yes. So Aggie somehow just gets herself a new home where she is living alone. But no, she is actually not alone. There is a ghost in the house.
S: Hmm, so Aggie is a little kid but is living alone. That’s kind of strange, right?
C: Yeah, I mean, I know there are kids in the world who do not have anyone, but they also do not usually have their own homes. Anyways, this is fiction, so we don’t ask too many such questions.
S: Right. So let us not ask those questions.
C: Anyways, so Aggie’s house is haunted. And Aggie gets annoyed that the ghost is stealing her socks and eating all the cheese, so she tries to make rules, but the ghost always breaks the rules.
S: So he is kind of a bad roommate.
C: Yeah, and Aggie did not even want a roommate! So, one day she gets fed up with him and goes out and the ghost follows her, and so she challenges the ghost to a tic-tac-toe game. And if he loses he has to leave the house, and if he wins and she loses, she has to leave the house.
S: That is one stressful game! And you know tic-tac-toe really well, right, Caramel? You even did a project on it!
C: Yeah, I know that it is really hard to win. If both of you know how to play right, and neither side messes up, you can’t win.
S: True. So anyways who wins the game?
C: Maybe I should not spoil the whole book.
S: But does it end happily? Like do they get to be friends?
C: Not quite. It does end happily, but I won’t say more.
S: Alright. Then maybe tell me this. You have read and reviewed another book by Matthew Forsythe before: Pokko and the Drum. Do you remember that book? Is this one similar to that other book at all?
C: Not really, but the pictures remind me of one another. So if you did not tell me that these two books were illustrated by the same person, I might still have guessed.
S: Yeah, there are some intangible similarities in style somehow…
C: Also both books have the weird not-making-sense factor, like a friendly ghost who steals socks and eats all the cheese, or a fox that won’t immediately eat a rabbit that is right next to it.
S: So this particular author creates really fun and interesting and impossible worlds, right? The other book was about a frog who played a drum, really loudly, and that on its own also did not make too much sense. But it was a lot of fun to read. Did you think this book was fun to read?
C: Yeah, it would especially be a good book for younger bunnies, and especially around this time, you know, with Halloween coming up! This is always a fun time to think about ghosts and this particular ghost is not scary at all. He is a bit annoying though. But he is kind of funny. He likes to wear Aggie’s socks and eats up all her cheese, and cannot follow any house rules Aggie sets up.
S: Yeah, I can see reading this book as a humorous way to celebrate Halloween!
C: Yeah, totally.
S: Okay, maybe this is a good time to wrap up this review.
C: Sure!
S: What do you want to tell our readers?
C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews! And happy Halloween!
