Oh how my eyes were opened when I read it as an adult!
Originally written in German and first published in 1967, it tells the story of a little ghost who has hourly haunts of Eulenstein Castle just outside the town of the same name.
Bored with haunting for an hour every night he wishes he can see the world by day. It isn't long before he gets what he wants but it comes at a price: he changes colour from white to black.
At first the book seems like an attack. The ghost goes from blending in to standing out like a sore thumb. He is horrified and depressed with his change. I had to swallow back bitter anger when I read a passage on page 42 where the ghost is filled with self loathing at his change in circumstance.
But I persevered and soon came to realise that this is less a book about colour and more a social commentary about the very nature of fear. It's moral: we all fear what we don't know. It becomes staggeringly clear that townspeople simply fear the ghost because they look and judge him without having the courage to learn more about him.
'It's a pity people will start running away as soon as they see me' says the ghost on page 53. 'I suppose it's because I'm black. I must have looked a lot less frightening when I was all white. But I can't help it can I?'
This idea is given further fuel by the fact that the townspeople, even the mayor of the town constantly refer to the ghost as 'the dark unknown'.
It isn't until he meets three brave, innocent and fairly naive children that he gets the help he needs to return to the castle and his own version of normality, his lesson being that he should never have been too curious. But he can't return to his normal life until he apologises to the entire town bless him! He does so by letter and everything goes back the way it was.
Written at a time of great social change (Malcom X had been brutally assassinated 2 years earlier and Martin Luther King Junior was a year away from his own untimely death) it sends us a clear message. We find too much comfort and safety in what we are familiar with.
It is only by holding on to the open minded innocence of our childhood that we can begin to affect real positive change.
I would highly reccomend this book to anyone be it a 6 year old (who would accept it at face value) or a 16 year old (who might be tempted to analyse it and take it apart)!
A book translated from another language and book 5 on my 52 book list. On a little side note there is totally a scene in it that seems to be the inspiration for a pink, big eyed Pokemon who draws faces on things when he's unhappy! Any Pokemon fans will instantly know who I'm referring to!
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