No Such Thing by Ella Bailey

Computer-drawn with a limited palette reminiscent of 50’s picture books or even Soviet ones of the 1930s, No Such Thing  welcomes us into Georgia’s world, where things can go awry, but there is always a rational explanation. No such things as ghosts!

But Ella Bailey has fun with décalage, the French term for words and pictures whose stories differ. For the observant reader there are amiable little spirits peeping out from all over the place, but never spotted by Georgia. However, though the reader has superior insight to Georgia’s, and she is wrong again and again, she is certainly brave. We can identify with her determination to have the world make sense and recognise, as she doesn’t quite yet, that maybe it doesn’t always… 

Then there’s Georgia’s cat, who says nothing, but knows a lot. And those mischievous ghosts? Well, mischievous they may be, but playful and fun. So that’s all right.