When Leo helps catch a thief breaking into her house, he is forced to admit that he is not an imaginary friend but a real one. Luckily, he encounters the fantastically fun Jane, who believes he is an imaginary friend. When Leo, a ghost, finds the new inhabitants of his house unwelcoming, he takes to the streets.

What’s not to drool over?- Erin Reilly-Sanders, Ohio State University, Columbus VERDICT A whimsical tale from Barnett aptly accompanied by enthralling artwork by Robinson. The balance of texture and white space helps mitigate the many shades of blue, retaining visual interest and keeping the overall feel upbeat. Leo beautifully contrasts with the geometrically composed live humans, and Robinson finds some clever opportunities for depicting Leo’s transparency. Robinson solves the issue of a white ghost on a white page smartly by depicting Leo as a blue outline on white paper. His palette is almost exclusively blue, but the contrast between the different tones is sharp, and the heavy doses of gray with hints of green soften much of the blue into a neutral tone. There’s just enough of it to provide a canvas for Robinson’s thoughtful illustrations. Barnett’s story is expectedly droll and told in deadpan prose. Fortunately, the unflappable Jane graciously takes this all in stride.

Rendered in striking blues, blacks, and grays, his illustrations both underscore Leo’s temporal displacement and elevate the story’s sense of whimsy. Christian Robinson’s retro-styled artwork hits all the right notes.

The book ends on a high note: readers will cheer as Leo saves the day, reveals his true identity, and looks forward to a future where he’s no longer lonely. When Leo encounters a thief, he proves to be quite useful as a ghost.What follows is a lovely bit of irony, as Leo pretends to be her new imaginary friend-and must play along with the girl’s other imaginary friends, whom he can’t see. Leo’s self-imposed exile from his longtime home is heartbreaking-until he meets a girl who is able to see him.The art depicts both sides of the story: on the verso page, Leo happily holds out a tray with “mint tea and honey toast.” On the recto page, the family freezes in horror as they see a tray floating in midair. Readers will sympathize with Leo’s eagerness to please-and his subsequent dismay when the newly moved-in family doesn’t share his excitement.Leo, a ghost story that shows the ghost’s perspective, is by turns touching and mischievously funny.

Leo a ghost story