June's Book Pick is the middle grade, Newbery Honor-winning DOLL BONES, by a master of the fantasy genre, Holly Black.
Zach, Poppy, and Alice have been friends for a long time. They play a complex, ongoing game with dolls and action figures, making up elaborate stories for their beloved characters. Among others, there are pirate William the Blade, adventurer Lady Jaye, mermaids, and the Great Queen, a bone china doll who sits alone in a glass display case at Poppy's house.
When Zach, Poppy, and Alice reach middle school, Zach's father, who thinks it's time for Zach to give up this baby stuff, throws out William the Blade and Zach's other characters. Zach is so upset, he shuts down the game without explaining why. But when Poppy says that the Queen is really the ghost of a young girl who wants a proper burial, all three are pulled into a very strange quest.
Grounded in a very realistic world, Doll Bones walks a fine line between the healthy skepticism that most middle grade readers will feel about the ghost stuff, and the growing creepiness of the plot. Zach muses about how he'd like the world to have magic in it, even if it's only the bad kind. And even Alice, who fights agains believing, thinks it's better to go ahead and get the doll buried, just in case, Like the main characters, readers will be won over, though no one can ever be entirely sure what to believe.
I love how the expressive and eerie illustrations by Eliza Wheeler add to the overall spooky atmosphere. I also love how these are real kids--they are not "perfect" characters who do what's expected of them. Rather, they rebel, run away, and that's just the beginning. But Black let's them show us why we should root for them, and how they are growing up with integrity.
I have said that no one can ever be entirely sure what to believe--would you rather Black had either let us (and probably her characters) be sure the ghost didn't exist, or encouraged us to believe more fully in it?
--Lynn
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