When Mum and Dad are busy working from home, Ava gets bored. Luckily for her, Ghostie comes to the rescue. There's mischief and mayhem galore as together they explore his ghostly powers and celebrate family, friendship and imaginative play.
So goes the premise for new children's book Ghostie by Canberra author Dr Stephanie Owen Reeder, a work that not only captures the zeitgeist but also the creative imagination of the author's eight-year-old granddaughter Ava Adore Hope.
Ghostie is, in fact, the imaginary friend of Ava, an only child from Torrens and year three student at the Orana Steiner School in Weston.
"I sometimes pick Ava up from school and often I have not just Ava in the back seat of the car, but also Ghostie. And he can be very cheeky, can't he Ava?" Dr Reeder said.
"I just hear this little voice going, 'Ghostie, get into your seat'! And 'Stop flying around the car'.
"I was chatting to Tania McCartney, who's another Canberra children's author, and I was telling her about this and she said, 'Oh, you've got to write a book about this - Ghostie and Ava and their adventures'. So, I did." It's her 20th book and one packed with meaning as well as fun.
Dr Reeder says COVID lockdowns have meant many parents will relate to the delicate juggle of entertaining young kids while trying to work from home.
"Lots of children have found it really difficult being shut up at home without their friends, and escaping into their imagination is a really important way to deal with the anxiety that can be caused from that unusual situation," she said.
"That's what Ghostie is all about - a little girl who is stuck at home [while] Mum and Dad are working on their computers all day, and out of her wonderful, active imagination, comes this little creature called Ghostie who she can have adventures with, creating joy and delight and mayhem around the house."
And in a spooky coincidence, illustrator Mel Armstrong drew the spitting image of the fictional Ava without ever having seen the real-life little girl.
Ava says Ghostie is like her "imaginary little brother" who loves having fun and eating noodles.
Ava has inherited the writing genes of her grandmother and also mum, arts publicist Megan Reeder Hope. A poem Ava wrote about an apple tree was recently included in her school's poetry anthology. She feels "good" to be in a book by her grandmother and writing is something she's just drawn to.
"It just brings me to it," she said.
- Ghostie will be launched at the Book Cow in Jardine Street, Kingston on Saturday at 3pm. Ghostie is out now through Windy Hollow Books.
