A Ghost in My Mirror

David M. Kelly is a teaching assistant at Brock University in St.
Catharines.

In this English translation of Un Fantome dans la Miroir, a young girl
(“Poppy”) encounters the ghost of her long-dead great-aunt in her
grandmother’s mirror. The aunt, who died as a little girl, proves to
be a malicious brat, who unleashes her stuffed animal collection when
Poppy crosses her. But then Poppy wakes up, problem solved....

It’s hard to evaluate such a tale. It’s not “scary” in the
sense of what one might expect from a ghost story. Nor is it funny,
suspenseful, or imaginative. It’s a sugary-sweet, overly gentle tale
of a little girl who’s too good to be true (Grandma’s pet) and her
bad dream. For the excessively timid, it may be just the thing; for most
children, it’s far too tame.

The black-and-white illustrations—little more than cartoons with
shading—match the text’s bland sweetness. This book tries hard to
please, but ultimately it fails.