- Picture Books
- Ages 4–7
- Comedy
Aggie and the Ghost
A girl named Aggie moves into a house that already has a tenant, a ghost who is very particular about his privacy. Matthew Forsythe's picture book about an unlikely friendship between the living and the dead, rendered with his signature deadpan warmth.
- Best for4–7
- FormatPicture
- Length44 pp
- Read aloud~9 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Conversational
- Comedic
- Literary
Tone
- Funny
- Gentle
- Whimsical
- Absurdist
- Bittersweet
- Cosy
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
Aggie is a girl who moves into a new house and discovers it comes with a ghost. The ghost is not, initially, delighted about this. What follows is something between a haunting and a playdate, the two negotiate the space between them with Forsythe's characteristic mix of genuine comedy and surprisingly tender feeling. The ghost and Aggie play tic-tac-toe. They observe each other warily. Eventually something shifts. Forsythe's illustrations, with their muted richly coloured backgrounds and characters with expressively blank faces, make the haunted house feel oddly cosy and the ghost less frightening than simply lonely. A picture book about loneliness, belonging, and the particular friendship that happens when neither party was expecting one.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 4–7
- Read aloud · 3–8
- Independent · 5–7
Prose load
Light
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Strong
Works well for
- Reading aloud
- Reading together
- Gift-buying
- Reluctant readers
Preview before sharing if a child is sensitive to: scary imagery.
Bedtime suitability
3 / 5 · Workable
Sensitive-child
3 / 5 · Mostly fine
Graphic intensity
3 / 5 · Some
Best for
- Ghost story not scary
- Unlikely friendship
- Picture book adults love
- Gift book
Avoid if
No common reasons to avoid this one — a rare clean sweep on the sensitivity flags.
Particularly good for children who are…
- Making friends
- Nightmares or fears
- Anxiety and worry
In the classroom
How it works in school.
A whimsical, gently funny picture book about friendship and being yourself — a warm read-aloud that opens talk about loneliness and belonging.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
The specific delight is the wary friendship — Aggie moving into a house that comes with a particular ghost who isn't delighted about her arrival, the two of them watching each other warily, eventually playing tic-tac-toe. The Forsythe picture book where the ghost turns out to be lonely, not menacing.
- Secret world
- Friendship and belonging
- Trickery and cleverness
Why parents love it
The Matthew Forsythe at his most beautiful — muted rich palette, blank-faced characters somehow expressive, deadpan warmth. Quiet, weird, gorgeous. Strong for the friendship-with-the-unexpected-other conversation.
- Shared humour
- Beautiful illustrations
- Conversation starter
- Great writing
About the author & illustrator
Matthew Forsythe.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.
Where you’ll find it
On these reading lists.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
- Bookshop.org ↗
- Waterstones ↗
- Amazon UK ↗
- Hive ↗
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