Cale Atkinson does it again! Sir Simon Super Scarer was a fantastic story about a ghost and a boy who both want to be super and they spur one another on even when they don't really want to. Adorable.

Sir Simon knows everything a ghost needs to know about haunting a house, and is a darn good scarer too.

Until Chester moves into Simon's house with his grandmother, and wants to help.

Below is when Chester first meets Simon. As you can see, he is not at all scared, and wants to be a scarer too.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-663" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Screen-Shot-2018-06-20-at-9.19.54-AM.png" alt="Sir Simon Super Scarer-qustions 1" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-662" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Screen-Shot-2018-06-20-at-9.20.00-AM.png" alt="Sir Simon, Super scarer-questions2" />

Although, Chester's idea of what scary sounds are, is barn yard animals, which drives Simon crazy.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-661" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Screen-Shot-2018-06-20-at-9.20.15-AM.png" alt="Sir Simon super scarer-Moo" />

Funny story that kids should enjoy, and laugh at rather than be frightened of. Cut book.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

This book is seriously adorable. The storyline, the illustrations -- all top notch. Recommended for early readers, and may even interest kids through elementary age.

ARC Copy...awww super cute and beautiful illustrations Cale is known for about a ghost (whose too cute to be that scary hehe) describing his "serious" job as a ghost and bonding with the kid who moved into his haunted house.

Sir Simon is a card carrying ghostest with the mostest! He's a professional at haunting everything from forests and boats to ukeleles and even pizza. He's being transferred to his very first haunted house and is excited to find that grandparents are moving into his house! In the pyramid of haunting, old people are at the top because they sleep all the time. Now Simon will have plenty of spare time away from his chores (like stomping in the attic and standing in windows wearing old-timey clothes in the early morning hours) to pursue his hobbies of cross-stitching, learning French, and even writing a novel.
But not only does a sweet cookie-baking grandmother move in to the house, so does Chester ...a kid. Kids are at the very bottom of the pyramid of haunting; they're way too curious! Simon thinks he'll have to spend all his time doing ghost chores with Chester living in the house -- or maybe he can teach Chester how to do the chores for him!
This is a really entertaining story about the unlikely friendship between a ghost and a boy that's sure to bring plenty of laughs from both kids and adults. Sir Simon: Super Scarer is an excellent book for parents to read aloud and young emerging readers will enjoy the silly illustrations.
Thanks to Tundra Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

HA! I think adults might get as big a kick out of this story as kids! It was very funny! POV of ghost. Ever wonder what ghosts do? How they teach other ghosts to be ghosts? This humorous book will tell you! Illustrations were a hoot, as well!

Simon, The Friendly Ghost

I've always thought that Caspar the Friendly Ghost was a brilliant creation. Kids can like ghost stories, and with all the books, movies, video games, toys, and other cultural references to ghosts they are a staple of literature and entertainment. But hit a little kid with something too scary or unnerving and, bam, it's nightmare time. That's where Caspar comes in. He was, well, friendly. And the bad ghosts were mostly just pranksters. This book is in that tradition of friendly, chatty ghosts, and adds some amusing and clever twists that make the whole project appealing and entertaining.

The story here is that Sir Simon, the "Super Scarer", was a freelance ghost, (haunting a variety of things including a bus stop bench and a pizza box), but has now gotten his first haunted house. That's a lot of work and the haunting chores include moving things around, making stairs creak, stomping in the attic, and "standing creepy in the window wearing old-timey clothes". (I'm sorry, but that list, with its sly wink to older readers, just amuses me no end.)

The gig goes downhill, though, when Sir Simon finds that one of the residents of the house is a kid named Chester. Chester is not at all afraid, is constantly curious, and keeps following Simon around and bugging Simon with pesky questions. So Simon makes Chester an official assistant ghost and gets him to do all of his chores. After a while Simon feels guilty about conning Chester and starts to help Chester with his human chores. They become best buddies.

Lots of fun and funny picture books end up on an odd note or with a conflicted or ambiguous "moral", but this one is crisp, clear and upbeat, with everyone learning a simple lesson or two and having fun along the way. I'm not sure how you can get more into a picture book than that.

Here's the best part. The book is very funny in a droll and deadpan fashion. There are throwaways about what Simon does in his spare time, a nice set scene in which Simon tries out different ways of dressing Chester up as a ghost, and so on. The ways that Chester messes up ghost chores and Simon messes up human chores are clever, amusing and kid-relateable. The text is brief, but just on point. The drawings are simple, but get the story across. The characters are fairly expressive, which is quite an achievement since one is wearing a sheet and the other pretty much is a sheet.

There's not a false note in the entire book, and some subtle touches, (looking at photos on the walls it's clear Chester is a foster child), that give this book a bit of unexpected heft. So, my bottom line was that I enjoyed and admired this book, and was especially pleased to find it.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)