Aggie and the Ghost

A LitHub Most Anticipated Children’s Book of 2025

What happens when a rule-loving girl discovers she’s sharing her new house with a mischievous ghost? Pure magic—and maybe a little chaos.

From Matthew Forsythe, the brilliant mind behind the beloved Pokko and the Drum, comes this delightfully cheeky picture book about compromise, friendship, and the art of sharing space. When Aggie moves into her very own house, she’s thrilled about independence—until she realizes she has an uninvited (and unruly) roommate. Her solution? A perfectly reasonable list of rules: No haunting after dark. No stealing socks. No eating all the food.

But this ghost has other plans. What unfolds is an epic showdown over a game of tic-tac-toe, with the house itself as the prize. Through stunning illustrations and clever storytelling, Forsythe captures the push-and-pull of unlikely friendships and the beautiful mess that comes when two very different personalities learn to coexist.

“This might be a perfect picture book,” raves Quill & Quire in a starred review, while Shelf Awareness celebrates this “cheeky picture book” about learning to bend without breaking. Publishers Weekly calls it “a book that captures the dance of unlikely bonds.”

Perfect for young readers navigating new experiences, building confidence, or learning that sometimes the best adventures come from breaking—or at least bending—a few rules. A treasure for any child’s bookshelf, and a story that lingers long after the last page.

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