(Credit: Matthew Forsythe)

This might be a perfect picture book.

I love everything about Matthew Forsythe’s Aggie and the Ghost. I love Aggie. I love the ghost. I love the writing, the themes, the illustrations, and the close attention paid to page-turns, colours, and mood.

Montreal artist Matthew Forsythe – comic artist, children’s book illustrator, and animation designer – tells the charming story of Aggie, a girl who moves into a new house and finds it’s haunted by a persistent, rule-breaking ghost. Aggie is never afraid – after all, the ghost isn’t scary. They’re just … annoying.

They steal her socks, eat her cheese, keep her awake, and never leave her alone. And Aggie really values her alone time. She tries to establish some rules. The ghost listens, but doesn’t follow through.

Frustrated, Aggie goes for a rainy day walk – only to be joined by the ghost, now wearing her scarf. So she challenges them to a high-stakes game of tic-tac-toe. If Aggie wins, the ghost has to move out. At first, they play seriously – but soon, they’re having so much fun that they both forget why they started.

When they’re done, they head home. Aggie makes more rules, and the ghost breaks them and finally, finally moves out. Aggie enjoys her alone time every bit as much as she expected but … she misses the ghost, just a little. So she invites them back.

They don’t live happily ever after, and that’s what makes this picture book so perfect. Aggie and the ghost are incompatible roommates, with different boundaries and lifestyles – and that’s okay. The ghost visits, but doesn’t overstay their welcome. Aggie keeps living her mostly solitary life.

This book quietly teaches children that it’s okay to choose friends based on shared values and boundaries. But it also shows that even when those things don’t align, we can still find healthy, joyful ways to connect – like playing tic-tac-toe.