l to r: Kyo Maclear (Credit: David Wall) and Katty Maurey

No typical, unsettling ghosts haunt Vicky Metcalf Award–winning author Kyo Maclear’s latest picture book. The subtle spirit roaming throughout There’s a Ghost in the Garden gently speaks to the enduring nature of memory.

The child narrator loves spending time with his grandfather. Together, they look after a lush garden, talk about the past, and wonder about ghosts. The boy describes evidence of phantom handiwork, such as finding toppled over flower pots, and a tiny carved figurine in a bird’s nest, as well as other “small things that feel left behind on purpose.” Grandpa speculates there are always ghosts around, “we just don’t tend to notice them.”

When the boy presents a smooth stone to Grandpa, this talisman takes the elder back to the stream he used to swim in when he was young. There are many poetic instances of the absent past leaving a mark, and being felt in the present. The stream isn’t there anymore, but sometimes the boy thinks he can “smell it and feel its coolness” from listening to Grandpa’s recollections. The sound of a mulberry tree full of birdsong can still be heard, “even though the tree died years ago.” The site of a junkyard bathtub that provided an olden days garden hideout remains a favourite thinking spot. At the end of their visit, the boy and his grandfather gather scraps of wood and some treasures that “the ghost has left behind,” to craft a new place to “sit and listen for the cool, dark stream.”

Illustration: Katty Maurey.

Like a leisurely, observant stroll through nature, Maclear’s spare, serene text takes a contemplative path. There are many reflective sentiments expressed throughout the roving conversations: “Sometimes to see things,” Grandpa says, “I like to close my eyes,” and “memory has a geography just like the world.”

Imbued with botanical magic, Montreal artist and Governor General’s Award–nominee Katty Maurey’s gouache paintings are earthy and ethereal. Shadowy figures, real or imagined, can be spotted in the mossy green and rusty brown foliage, or behind diaphanous, sun-lit window curtains.

Ambient, atmospheric, and mysterious, There’s a Ghost in the Garden conjures connections to the past and celebrates the bond between generations.