Genre
Picture books for children
Translations
Theme
Learning to share
Subject
Children
Friendship
Ghosts
Girls
Personal conduct
Selfishness
Sharing
Supernatural
Toleration
Toleration in children

Mine! Is about a girl named Charlotte who one day stumbles upon a ghost in her bed. She attempts to befriend the ghost, but everything the ghost touched he yelled "Mine". The ghost could clearly not share. Charlotte and they ghost play together everyday and finally the ghost learns how to share, well for the most part. Until a man comes knocking at the door describing a missing ghost from his castle and Charlotte simply says my ghost is nice and he shares so the man leaves. The nest day the ghost is gone and there is note to Charlotte that says "yours". The ghost finally learned how to share. I read this book to a group of second graders and they loved it. I got a lot of positive feedback and it went over well. ( )

Like Mathilde Stein's heroine of The Child Cruncher, Charlotte takes things as they come and is never at a loss. So when she finds a little white ghost in her bed, she's not at all surprised. He turns out to be quite a selfish little ghost, and the only word he knows if "mine". But with Charlotte's firm guidance, he learns it's more fun to play when you share!

Although this is a ghost story, it's not really something you'd put in your Halloween or holiday books. The emphasis isn't on the ghost, but on Charlotte's matter-of-fact acceptance of his presence and her straight-faced way of dealing with the ghost's demands. When the ghost goes home, Charlotte misses him - but he's learned quite a few things from her, as she discovers!

Mies van Hout's art is comfortingly scratchy and textured and her minimalist faces express emotions with just a twitch of the mouth and a shift of the ghost's little dot eyes. The combination of full-page spreads and smaller inset illustrations breaks up the longer sections of text and will hold the attention of children from the surprising beginning to the satisfying end.

Verdict: Recommended. Hand this one to parents who want books on sharing, to kids who like ghost stories that aren't too creepy, and to fans of The Child Cruncher.