Zach, Poppy and Alice have been friends forever and they create scenes and used their toys to act perform their creations. They are twelve and they are still using their imaginations to think up new plots for the pirates, mermaids and the great queen (a china doll who is locked up in Poppy's moms display cabinet. Zach's father, who had just moved back home, thinks that Zach is too old to play with toys and needs to start to "grow up". His father throws away his toys without Zach's knowledge. Zach is crushed since many of his action figures have lead parts in their role playing skits. He had even written a new part that in his backpack. He does not want to tell Poppy and Alice that he no longer has his toys, so instead he tells them that he is too old to play anymore. Poppy starts to have dreams about the great queen and how the crushed bones of a murdered girl are hidden inside the doll. The three friends decide to have one last adventure and try and solve the murder as they are led to clues by the doll or is it a ghost.
APA Reference:
Black, H. (2013). Doll bones. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Impressions:
This was a fun adventure ghost story, if at times it was a little unbelievable. The plot was a roller coaster as the three friends have to figure out ways to find the graveyard without much money or means or transportation. The doll was a little creepy but the story behind the murder and the events that led to the dreadful fate. I liked the library scene, but an alarm would have sounded when they broke in through the basement window. They needed to find the information and clues that was in the exhibit in the library. I think that no one is ever too old for toys and imagination.
Professional Review:
A middle-grade fantasy dons the cloak of a creepy ghost tale
to deliver bittersweet meditations on the nature of friendship, the price of
growing up and the power of storytelling. The lifelong friendship of Zach,
Poppy and Alice revolves around their joint creation, an epic role-playing saga
of pirates and perils, queens and quests. But now they are 12, and their
interests are changing along with their bodies; when Zach's father trashes his
action figures and commands him to "grow up," Zach abruptly quits the
game. Poppy begs him to join her and Alice on one last adventure: a road trip
to bring peace to the ghost possessing her antique porcelain doll. As they
travel by bus and boat (with a fateful stop at the public library), the ghost
seems to take charge of their journey--and the distinctions between fantasy and
reality, between play and obligation, begin to dissolve. Veteran Black packs
both heft and depth into a deceptively simple (and convincingly uncanny)
narrative. From Zach's bitter relationship with his father to Anna's chafing at
her overprotective grandmother to Poppy's resignation with her ramshackle
relations, Black skillfully sketches their varied backgrounds and unique
contributions to their relationship. A few rich metaphors--rivers, pottery,
breath--are woven throughout the story, as every encounter redraws the blurry
lines between childishness and maturity, truth and lies, secrecy and honesty,
magic and madness. Spooky, melancholy, elegiac and ultimately hopeful; a small
gem.
Doll bones (2013). Kirkus Reviews, 81(6), 158.
Library Uses:
Ths book could be used as starting point to research unsolved mysteries. The students could infer and make assumptions about what might have happened and how it could be solved.
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