The Shadow and the Ghost

by Cat Min (Author)

Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

Shinbi is not a particularly ghosty ghost. At night she likes making tiny bouquets of things and gazing at the far away stars. Haunting? Not so much.

Even if that's what the other ghosts like. In the daytime, in a meadow, sits a single rock, casting a single shadow, named Greem. He'd really like someone to talk to. But who? He writes one word on his lonely rock: "Hi" and hopes someone will see it. Sure enough, in the darkness of night, Shinbi finds the note!

But who could have written it? In a profound exploration of how friendship can break through barriers of time and circumstance, Cat Min introduces us to two unforgettable characters we'd all love to know.

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Hardcover
$18.99

Kirkus Reviews

A joyful celebration of friendship, the stars, and finding one’s self in this world and beyond. 

Booklist

In this unique fable linking two worlds, their wonders aglow in rich color washes, author-illustrator Min uses inventive compositions and striking contrasts to illuminate this friendship defined—but not confined—by night and day.

Publishers Weekly

A friendship that transcends barriers of embodiment and time anchors this starry creation by Min (The Little Toymaker). Shinbi is a night-roaming ghost who eschews haunting to watch constellations from her favorite rock. Greem, the rock's velvety shadow, makes himself known to Shinbi after the ghost uses a shooting star to wish for a friend. He is only visible during the day, so the two can't meet, but their exchanged notes of greeting lead to intense mutual curiosity about each other. They craft and share images of their similarly shaped selves, Shinbi tells Greem about the night sky, and the two invent constellations from pebbles they toss into grass. Brilliantly graduated panels of day to night capture moments of transformation and seasonal variation, conveying the beautiful but frustrating reality that keeps Shinbi and Greem apart--until Greem makes a wish of his own. It's a work of breathless connection that interweaves yearning for companionship with yearning to know the natural world. Ages 4-8. Agent: Maria Vicente, P.S. Literary Agency. (Apr.)

Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
Cat Min
Cat Min is an illustrator, animator, and writer. Cat grew up as a shy kid in Hong Kong, where she spent most of her childhood drawing and making comic books out of printer paper and staples with her best friend. She studied animation and film at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, and completed the Illustration & Visual Storytelling Summer Residency Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. She is also a member of SCBWI. Her (not so) guilty pleasures are: McDonald's french fries, sappy romance comics, mobile escape game apps, visual novels, and all things cheese.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781646143689
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Levine Querido
Publication date
April 20, 2024
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV039060 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Friendship
JUV037000 - Juvenile Fiction | Fantasy & Magic
JUV009040 - Juvenile Fiction | Concepts | Opposites
Library of Congress categories
Friendship
Picture books
Ghosts
Shadows
Shade and shadows

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