The Bones of Fred McFee

by Eve Bunting, Kurt Cyrus (Illustrator)

Overview

A skeleton takes on a life of its own in this eerie Halloween story told in a Poe-like cadence.

In this rhythmic story, an unsuspecting brother and sister bring a toy skeleton home from the harvest fair. They name it Fred McFee and hang it from a sycamore tree. Soon, eerie things begin to happen: The rooster disappears. The hens won't lay. Most terrifying of all, Fred's bones dance clickety-clack as night winds howl. And then on Halloween night, Fred McFee vanishes!

Eve Bunting's gleefully ghoulish tale is sure to become a Halloween classic.

Author Biography: Eve Bunting is the author of many acclaimed books for young readers, including the Caldecott Medal–winning Smoky Night . Her numerous honors include the prestigious Kerlan Award for her body of work. Ms. Bunting lives in Pasadena, California.

Kurt Cyrus is the illustrator of Sixteen Cows by Lisa Wheeler and The Mousery by Charlotte Pomerantz, as well as O ddhopper Opera: A Bug’s Garden of Verses, which he both wrote and illustrated. He lives in Cottage Grove, Oregon.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442058194
Publisher:	Baker & Taylor, CATS
Publication date:	06/01/2009
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.75(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Eve Bunting was the beloved, award-winning author of more than two hundred and fifty books for young people, including the Caldecott Medal-winning Smoky Night, illustrated by David Diaz, The Wall, Fly Away Home, and Train to Somewhere.

Kurt Cyrus has hammered out such books as Billions of Bricks, Tadpole Rex, and Oddhopper Opera: A Bug’s Garden of Verses. He has also illustrated books by authors such as Eve Bunting (The Bones of Fred McFee), Lisa Wheeler (Mammoths on the Move), and M.T. Anderson (Whales on Stilts). Kurt lives in a small town in Oregon. Visit him online at www.kurtcyrus.com.

Editorial Reviews

A brother and sister bring home a plastic skeleton from the harvest fair, hang him in their sycamore tree, and name him Fred McFee. When the wind blows, his bones go clickety-clack. Old dog Sam now avoids the tree and "the rooster’s gone and the hens won’t lay, / since we got Fred McFee." Then: "The dark is dropping like a cowl— / There’s no star to be seen. / What’s wrong with Sam? We hear him howl / This night of Halloween." The next morning McFee has vanished, gone from the sycamore tree, but below is a mound they know is a grave and they mark the spot with pebbles and shells. Now when the wind howls and shakes the tree, "We hear them dancing the dance of the dead—those bones of Fred McFee!" Told in rhyme with the rhythm of an old narrative poem, the story will work as a scary read-aloud but it’s the attractive illustrations that cast the spell. The combination of smartly designed compositions and elongated perspectives creates an engrossingly eerie effect. The lines of the scratchboard and watercolors etch dimension into the shapes, pulling the scenes up in dramatic fashion. Jack-o’-lanterns shift from friendly to fearsome as they loom open-mouthed in the foreground. Fred is no namby-pamby skeleton; this is spookiness with attitude and a great new addition to Halloween shelves. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews

"Though this book is set near Halloween, children who enjoy a good shiver will want to read or hear it year-round."—School Library Journal
—

From the Publisher