<i>Bone volume 1: Out from Boneville</i> by Jeff Smith

Synopsis: The Bone brothers, Fone, Phoney, and Smiley, have been kicked out of Boneville for one of Phoney’s hairbrained schemes. They get lost in the desert, separated, and all end up in a strange valley inhabited with other animals, scary rat creatures, and a red dragon (in whom nobody believes). Fone is the main character, and most of the story follows him trying to find his two cousins with the help of a tiny green bug named Ted, a girl named Thorn and her cow-racing Gran’ma Ben.

Rating: Brilliant!

Opinion: Not only are the pictures beautifully drawn, the story is humorous, engaging, and endearing. The characters each have well-rounded personalities, and you care about what happens to them, even Phoney Bone (whose only endearing characteristic is the fact that Fone Bone cares about him). There’s a lot of humor to it, too – I laughed out loud during the scene where they are running through a cloud of locusts (“Whatever you do – don’t stick out your tongue! Pitt! Poo! Yuck!”). What really keeps the story going, though, are the little mysteries – why did the Bone cousins get thrown out of Boneville? Why does the red dragon keep rescuing Fone Bone from the rat creatures, and why does no one in the valley believe that the dragon exists? What are the rat creatures, anyway? Not all of these questions are answered in this volume, which is why I can’t wait to read volume 2. This book is brilliant. Go directly to the library, do not pass go, etc. Or the bookstore if your library doesn’t have it.