The Bones of Fred McFee - Hardcover

Bunting, Eve

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152020047 ISBN 13: 9780152020040

Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books, 2002

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

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 Southern California.

KURT CYRUS is the illustrator of a number of children's books, including three he also wrote: Tangle Town, Slow Train to Oxmox, and, most recently, Oddhopper Opera: A Bug's Garden of Verses. He lives in Cottage Grove, Oregon.

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 3-"There's a skeleton high in our sycamore tree,/High as high can be./He was hung up there by my sister and me,/High in our sycamore tree." With this spooky refrain, Bunting opens her ambiguously creepy tale. Strange things have been happening since the children brought the skeleton home, named it, and hung it up. The dog and rooster won't go near the tree, and the bones rattle and chatter in the dark, gusty night wind. The story, told in rhyme, keeps readers on the edge of their seats: is the skeleton made of plastic, as the children believe, or is it real? Cyrus's detailed, realistic illustrations, done in scratchboard and watercolor, are appropriately dark and are a perfect complement to the subtly scary mood of the text. Though this book is set near Halloween, children who enjoy a good shiver will want to read or hear it year-round. Pair it with Judy Sierra's The House That Drac Built (Harcourt, 1995) and Eve Bunting's Scary, Scary Halloween (Clarion, 1986) for a creepy Halloween storytime.
Heather E. Miller, Homewood Public Library, AL
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0152020047
• ISBN 13: 9780152020040
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Cyrus Kurt