40. Bone: Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith

BONE: OUT FROM BONEVILLE by Jeff Smith (Scholastic, 2005)

GENRE: Graphic Novel / Fantasy / Humor

HONORS: Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work, Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album: Reprint

REVIEW:

When Fone Bone and Smiley Bone help their cousin, Phoney Bone, escape from Boneville, a swarm of locusts separate the cousins from each other.  After falling off of a cliff, Fone Bone only wants to find his cousins, so when he stumbles upon a forest, a talkative bug tells him that he must find Thorn.  Fone Bone encounters a cast of humorous characters as he attempts to get to Thorn, including a cigarette-smoking dragon that constantly saves Fone Bone from being the meal of a couple of dim-witted rat creatures.  When Fone Bone meets and instantly falls in love with Thorn, she assures him that she will help him find his cousins at the town’s spring fair with the help of her cow-racing grandmother.  After a close run-in with a large group of the evil rat creatures, Fone Bone is reunited with his cousins.  However, the appearance of a cloaked figure guarantees that the bone cousins’ troubles are far from over.

OPINION:

This is a fun graphic novel for tweens, full of humor and adventure as Fone Bone tries to find his cousins and escape the rat creatures.  The color illustrations are done beautifully, reminiscent of classic comic book art.  The graphic novel has a whole cast of characters that will stick with readers, from Thorn’s tough as nails grandma to the stealthy dragon that pops up at random times to help Fone Bone.  The story ends with a brilliant cliffhanger, leaving readers to wonder who the cloaked figure is and what he or she wants with the bone cousins.  Although I can see it being more popular among younger tweens, I found the graphic novel really enjoyable and the funny little main character may attract older tweens looking for a humorous story.

IDEAS:

This graphic novel would be great in a library display of humorous graphic novels.  Also, because the main characters are fairly simple to draw, it could be used in a library program about creating graphic novels, with tweens making their own graphic novels using the bone cousins.