Making the Sale: Hardly Haunted by Jessie Sima

There was once a house that was an apparent drag on the real estate market--never rented or bought.

WHY? (Could it be the black cat that always sat on the FOR SALE sign?)

"I THINK"... SAID THE HOUSE... "I MIGHT BE HAUNTED."

"IF I AM ON MY BEST BEHAVIOR, NO ONE WILL NOTICE."

But all the spooky signs were there. The house tried to stand quietly and appear habitable, but everything was dusty and draped with spiderwebs. The stairs squeeked and the door hinges creaked. Dead tree branches scratched ominously at the windows. The timbers groaned. Drafty passages moaned. The black cat shredded the curtains and the raven croaked in the tree outside.

But the house had to admit that it liked its familiar noises.

"I'LL JUST HAVE TO FIND PEOPLE WHO LIKE THAT I'M SPOOKY. . . . "A FAMILY WHO WILL HELP THIS HAUNTED HOUSE BECOME A HAPPY HOME."

And when a family of wispy ghosts discover the listing, they and their spooky domicile live hauntingly together ever after, in author-illustrator Jessie Sima's latest, Hardly Haunted (Simon and Schuster, 2021).

It's a happy Halloween habitat for youngsters who like their spooky season stories on the droll side, in which there are different strokes for different spooks--who prefer to be happily haunted and hauntingly happy. Says Publisher's Weekly, "... a lovely twist on finding one’s place in the world, told with a light touch and plenty of ominous onomatopoeia.

Another hit by Jessie Sima which also celebrates the out-of-the-ordinary in her best-selling Not Quite Narwhal. (See my review here:)