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Ghost Train
Headless Hector, the Gray Lady, and the Silver Skeleton are looking for a place to haunt...
- GenresChildrensPicture Books
24 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 7, 2022
Headless Hector, the Gray Lady, and the Silver Skeleton, are three ghosts haunting Ravenswick Castle. They do everything they can to menace the guests. They play pranks, apport as wraiths at the foot of people's beds while they sleep, or reach out their bony fingers to slap someone in the face in the banquet hall, thus causing the warmbloods to fight among themselves. Turns out, though, that the three ghosts overdo it, and after a while no one is willing to stay the night in the accursed castle. After that, the castle closes down, forcing the three ghosts to find a new place to haunt.
They wander through the countryside, appearing in spectral form to terrorize townsfolk in courtyards and ballrooms, but it's somehow not the same as the fun they had at the castle. Finally they find their home in an amusement park, where the titular ghost train clatters along aged tracks through a creaky haunted house. The train, in its present form, is an unpopular exhibit, filled with hokey cardboard ghouls and ghosts made of tattered bedsheets. Thankfully, though, the three itinerant undeadniks are about to infuse a little life (or death) into the place.
"Ghost Train" came recommended to me by a younger friend who told me the book was a key part of his childhood, and now serves a major artifact of nostalgia and inspiration for him, even though his taste in horror these days is much more blood-soaked, less innocent. One can see why the book had such an impact on him: it's wondrously illustrated, favoring a spooky blue-green palette that evokes memories of childhood Halloweens. It's all very Bradbury-esque. Best of all are the holograms inserted using the die-cut technique that was popular with the covers of adult horror paperbacks around the same time.
If you have a small kid who's a precocious reader, or maybe a preteen who will breeze through the text but maybe linger on the artwork, this one's a great buy. Highest recommendation.
They wander through the countryside, appearing in spectral form to terrorize townsfolk in courtyards and ballrooms, but it's somehow not the same as the fun they had at the castle. Finally they find their home in an amusement park, where the titular ghost train clatters along aged tracks through a creaky haunted house. The train, in its present form, is an unpopular exhibit, filled with hokey cardboard ghouls and ghosts made of tattered bedsheets. Thankfully, though, the three itinerant undeadniks are about to infuse a little life (or death) into the place.
"Ghost Train" came recommended to me by a younger friend who told me the book was a key part of his childhood, and now serves a major artifact of nostalgia and inspiration for him, even though his taste in horror these days is much more blood-soaked, less innocent. One can see why the book had such an impact on him: it's wondrously illustrated, favoring a spooky blue-green palette that evokes memories of childhood Halloweens. It's all very Bradbury-esque. Best of all are the holograms inserted using the die-cut technique that was popular with the covers of adult horror paperbacks around the same time.
If you have a small kid who's a precocious reader, or maybe a preteen who will breeze through the text but maybe linger on the artwork, this one's a great buy. Highest recommendation.
December 18, 2024
Short story if you like locomotives I’d recommend it. Pretty good story of a boy starting from the bottom at the worst train tower having to face difficulties of bandits and snow to get the trains thru. Not bad 6/10 just not quite my thing but good🙂
August 13, 2025
What a fun little book. I really liked the holographic ghosts, I wish some other picture books would still do fun things like this!
So glad I found it at the Lansing Mega Mall! A cure lil’ story to add to my Halloween collection 👻
So glad I found it at the Lansing Mega Mall! A cure lil’ story to add to my Halloween collection 👻
November 29, 2025
While I think it is fitting that the ghosts helped liven up a pathetic carnival, this felt a bit choppy and I wasn't sure who the audience was. If you like Nearly Headless Nick and tunnels of creepiness at fairs, I guess this is for you? The illustrations are awesome, though.
January 12, 2020
I love this book. I read this a lot as a kid. Shot and fun. The pictures and the Holograms are great. I love the story.
May 12, 2021
This book was the shit back at my first elementary school’s library! Revisiting this was incredibly nostalgic for me. The holograms were so fun to look at!
February 7, 2017
A strong contender for my favourite children's picture book. I spent a long time looking at Brian Lee's illustrations, he has a talent for wispy glowing ghosts and old castles. About two decades after seeing this I was pleased to discover he did similar books like The Ghost Pirate and Ghost Hunters.
I love the holograms too. I think holograms are under-explored territory in comics and picture books. In comics, holograms are strongly associated with the gimmicky collector's covers of the worst 90s comics but I say there's real potential for all those hologram, chrome, foil and embossing materials and techniques if better artists started doing it.
I love the holograms too. I think holograms are under-explored territory in comics and picture books. In comics, holograms are strongly associated with the gimmicky collector's covers of the worst 90s comics but I say there's real potential for all those hologram, chrome, foil and embossing materials and techniques if better artists started doing it.
June 30, 2018
Very cute story.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews