Today’s picture book features the most adorable little ghost you’ve ever seen.  If you’re a fan of Halloween, you won’t want to miss this one.

Maggie Edkins Willis grew up in Missouri and Maine in houses that, sadly, were not haunted. She now writes and illustrates books for children from her home studio in Princeton, New Jersey, where she lives with her husband and son. Their current house is maybe haunted, but she’s still waiting to meet the ghost. You can learn more about her at her website or follow her on Instagram.

LITTLE GHOST MAKES A FRIEND is Maggie’s debut author-illustrator picture book.  This is a picture book about a little ghost who desperately longs for a friend, but he doesn’t know how to make one.  In fact, he never leaves the house because he’s afraid of causing alarm. (Isn’t that sweet?) Yet when a new family moves in, Little Ghost musters up the courage to scribble a note and leave it on the porch next door, inviting the new girl over for a Halloween party.  He nervously decorates, makes cookies, tries on every costume he has, and worries that she won’t come. This sweet Halloween story is accompanied by illustrations that look soft and comfy.  They are the perfect companion to the this particular plot.

Please note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher to review, but the opinions, as always, are my own.

Welcome Maggie!

Me: Can you share about your journey? When did you start creating art and/or writing?  How did that bring you to where you are now as an author-illustrator of this picture book?

Maggie: I’ve always loved reading, writing, and drawing pretty equally. I chose to pursue art over English/writing as my focus in college (I was a Studio Art major and Art History minor at Penn), mostly because I enjoy reading less when it’s assigned to me. 🙂 After I graduated, though, I knew I wanted to pursue a career that married those interests. I didn’t have the confidence in my writing skills to jump into pursuing a career as an author, but I ended up getting a job assisting the creative director at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers which was a perfect start for me. I worked in-house at publishers designing covers for Middle Grade and Young Adult books (and the occasional Picture Book, which was a treat for me) for the next eight years. During that time I read so many manuscripts, met so many amazing authors and illustrators, and started to get a sense for the publishing market and what resonated with readers. Somewhere along the line, I realized I had my own ideas for books, and I started developing dummies and sending them to agents. My first book, a middle grade graphic novel called SMALLER SISTER, sold in 2019, and in 2020 I left my design job to be an author/illustrator full time!

Me: I love little ghost!  He’s so sweet and his desire for a friend is exactly what every young kiddo feels. What gave you the idea for this story?

Maggie: This book actually started as an Instagram post! I guess you could say the character came before anything else. When I have little pockets of free time I like to make “one-off” illustrations, just to challenge myself and try out different techniques and subject matter, and often I’ll post those pieces online. This book began as one of those. A few weeks before Halloween in 2021, I had the seasonal itch to draw a sweet little ghost trying on different costumes. An Art Director friend of mine (Sarah Creech, who ended up being the AD for this book!) shared the piece in her stories, which is where my editor, Catherine, saw it. She’d been on the lookout for a character like him, and reached out to ask if I had interest in building a book based on this character. And the rest went from there!

Me: I love that.  What did your illustration process for this book look like?  Are you a traditional or a digital artist?  Or do you use a blend of both?

Maggie: I drew LITTLE GHOST MAKES A FRIEND almost exclusively on my iPad, with a bit of Photoshop manipulation at the end. I draw mostly digitally at this point, but I try to utilize as many traditional media techniques as possible while working digitally. I draw a lot on the traditional painting classes I took in college in terms of how I render color and light, and I try to use a lot of scanned textures and layered paint strokes to give my digital work some depth.  

Me: I saw the adorable, crocheted ghost on Instagram that you received as a gift, complete with every costume in the book.  Can you talk about him?  Do you bring him with you to book signings or use him in any promotional way?  Or is he just for delightful fun at home?

Maggie: Isn’t he the cutest?! My art director, Sarah (the same one who shared the Instagram post that started this whole book process!) made that for me. She is so incredibly talented. She invented the patterns for all the little costume pieces herself! It truly is one of the nicest gifts I’ve ever gotten. He mostly lives on a shelf in my office where he can’t be reached by my adorable but destructive toddler, and I do plan to bring him to book events! He’s so precious to me though, so I have to make sure to keep him safe!

Me: I completely understand!  It is certainly a treasure.  Which was harder: writing or illustrating this story?

Maggie: I would say illustrating was probably a little more difficult. I think Catherine and I both knew where we wanted the story to go from the start, and it certainly helped that we both had a very clear idea of the character and rendering style from jump as well. Making the art was, of course, a lot of work. This particular book had a lot of Victorian architecture (namely, Ghost and Anya’s houses) and it was a challenge to keep those details consistent from various angles. Little Ghost is such a delight of a character to draw, though, so that carried me through.

Me: Any advice for other new picture book writers and/or illustrators?

Maggie: Put your work out there! It’s a scary world for illustrators right now with AI and all that, but I think this book is a great example that human connections and fun projects can still come from sharing work online. Beyond that, read and draw as much as you can. I know that’s a pretty common refrain, but in my experience, nothing develops your writing voice better than consuming stories, and nothing develops fluency of illustration skills more than putting pen to paper (or iPad) over and over and over again.

Me: You have got a ton of books in the works.  Can you share about some of your upcoming projects?

Maggie: I do! Next year, I’ve got a book called THUNDERLAND, about a girl who is afraid of storms, as well as a picture book called DINKY THE TINYSAUR coming from this same team at S&S that developed LITTLE GHOST. It’s sort of a Clifford-esque story about a dinosaur, and I think readers who love the sweetness of LITTLE GHOST will really love DINKY as well. I’m also working on two companion picture books called WONDERMOMS and WONDERDADS that will be out in 2026 that I’m SO excited about. They’re my first-ever rhyming projects, and they’re just really fun and silly and full of love. And then on the graphic novel side, I’m beginning final art on a book called BABY STEPS about a girl whose mother has a baby during a tumultuous time in their family. That one is an upper middle grade story and definitely has a good bit more emotional heft to it, so I’m glad I get to balance that out with some of these lovely, lighter picture book projects. But yes, I’ve got lots of irons in the fire right now, and there’s a good bit more to come from me in the next few years!

Wow!  That’s a lot of projects.  Good luck Maggie and thank you for stopping by my blog today.

Dear readers, this book came out in July.  If you missed it because you weren’t thinking of charming little ghosts when the heat was high, I highly recommend tracking down a copy of this book.  It’s a cozy read as perfect for sweater weather as pumpkin spice, plaid patterns, and knitted things.