With the help of his tiny ladybug friend, Georgie the ghost discovers that Janey, a little girl on her way to visit his human family, the Whitakers, had lost her ball of yarn. With the help of Miss Oliver the owl and Herman the cat, Georgie retrieved the yarn, and all went well on Janey's visit...

There really isn't much to Georgie and the Ball of Yarn, which was one of four miniature preschool picture-books about this friendly ghost published in 1983, at the end of author/illustrator Robert Bright's thirteen-volume series devoted to his adventures. The first nine titles, published from 1944 through 1979, were all full-sized picture-books, and contained more extensive stories. I'm not sure why these final four books - the others include Georgie and the Runaway Balloon, Georgie and the Little Dog and Georgie and the Baby Birds - were published in this format. They're not the equal of the earlier ones, in story or in illustration, although they are cute, and will no doubt entertain young children who are fans of the character, or who enjoy stories about friendly ghosts. ( )