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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Slightly creepy, and a really good take on how friendships change in middle school.
Doll Bones by Holly Black
Middle grade horror.
I love a creepy doll story and this one brought just the right amount of spookiness. The tone of the story was perfect for the genre and the pacing was impeccable
Middle grade horror.
I love a creepy doll story and this one brought just the right amount of spookiness. The tone of the story was perfect for the genre and the pacing was impeccable
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
This was a great book for grades 4-6. It teaches them about friendship, honesty and forgiveness in a story that is shrouded in supernatural mystery.
This was a quick read, but I really enjoyed it! I was a kid who had a huge imagination, and when I wasn't writing down stories I was playing them out with my toys. I had lots of different action figures, dolls, and other small toys that I would play with in my backyard for hours on end. I lived at the edge of the woods, and there was little ditch that had a natural spring running water through it more or less all the time. That became a river in my imagination, lined with small plastic houses and "troll" houses made of dirt with rocks for windows and doors. I would play there for hours at a time, though I can vividly remember the very last time I ever did.
I was in the front yard for a change, and I was probably about twelve years old. I was slowly migrating away from toys, but the desire to play out my imagination came over me hard and swift. I went outside with some of my things and sat down in the grass, starting to play act the day away. My sister (ten years older than me) came outside, sneered, and in a very condescending voice said "You're playing?"
That one stupid question changed me forever, and I never went back to playing like I once had. While I still wrote down my ideas and stories, it just wasn't the same at all.
This little book resonated with me because of that fact. I felt for Zach so much when his father threw his toys out, proclaiming him to old for such things. I loved all the kids in this story, and I very much enjoyed their creepy little quest.
Like many books before it, though perhaps less traumatizing than, say, Scary Stories To Tell in The Dark, this is a gateway for middle grades aged kids to get into the horror genre. I was that kid too, a fan of the creepy and macabre, so I endorse this idea whole heartedly!
That's it. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
I was in the front yard for a change, and I was probably about twelve years old. I was slowly migrating away from toys, but the desire to play out my imagination came over me hard and swift. I went outside with some of my things and sat down in the grass, starting to play act the day away. My sister (ten years older than me) came outside, sneered, and in a very condescending voice said "You're playing?"
That one stupid question changed me forever, and I never went back to playing like I once had. While I still wrote down my ideas and stories, it just wasn't the same at all.
This little book resonated with me because of that fact. I felt for Zach so much when his father threw his toys out, proclaiming him to old for such things. I loved all the kids in this story, and I very much enjoyed their creepy little quest.
Like many books before it, though perhaps less traumatizing than, say, Scary Stories To Tell in The Dark, this is a gateway for middle grades aged kids to get into the horror genre. I was that kid too, a fan of the creepy and macabre, so I endorse this idea whole heartedly!
That's it. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Does such a good job of capturing the awkward and sometimes heartbreaking straddle from childhood to adolescence through a quest to return bones to its grave. My only complaint was the voice of Poppy on the audio--ugh. Made me not like her and it wasn't her fault!
3.5 stars.
Listened to this one in the car, and the audio production was AMAZING. Wonderful reading.
The paranormal element is pretty light, which is why I didn't want to call this book outright horror despite some creepiness and haunting, but Black perfectly captures that strange in-between time of early adolescence and how friendships evolve and change as we get older.
Listened to this one in the car, and the audio production was AMAZING. Wonderful reading.
The paranormal element is pretty light, which is why I didn't want to call this book outright horror despite some creepiness and haunting, but Black perfectly captures that strange in-between time of early adolescence and how friendships evolve and change as we get older.