Synopses & Reviews
Try this book for Halloween, and for edge-of-the-seat suspense anytime. The language of the telling rustles like dry grasses, crackles like bones shifting in the windblown sands. Emerging from it, the Bone Woman herself, bent over her stick like an arch of stone, searches this way and that across the wide, scoured distances outside her cave. On the ground, she's assembled the bones she needs, all but "that tiny piece at the tip of the tip of the tail." That one is still unfound. She looks further. Finally triumphant, she "dances with one side of her body, waits with the other." Yet it is a while before her creation stirs, shakes itself, stands. What will it be? A wolf. The paintings powerfully suggest the Bone Woman's intent, her dramatic context, her nature a crone. Inspired by creation myths from many desert cultures, words and artwork (some of which appear to be made of bone itself, or of bronze) cast an indelible spell.
Review
Through words and paintings, there is a distinctively eerie undertone to Bone Woman and her strange activities, one that is certain to set just the right mood for this Halloween! (Dallas Morning News, October 11, 1999)
Review
A simple, nearly poetic story with primitive, scratchy artwork that complements the eerie mood. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 25, 1999)
Review
Karas's illustrations, a departure from his usual humor, make this a spooky tale for the campfire. Recommended. (Library Talk, Jan/Feb 2000)
About the Author
Megan McDonald grew up in Pittsburgh, the youngest of five girls. She attended Oberlin College and the Center for Study of Children's Literature in Boston, graduating with a BA in Children's Literature. Later, she received her MLS from the University of Pittsburgh. Ms. McDonald has written several picture books, a beginning reading series and one young adult novel. Her most recent titles for DK Ink are The Bone Keeper, illustrated by Brian Karas and, The Night Iguana Left Home illustrated by Ponder Goembel. She lives in Sebastopol, California, with her husband. G. Brian Karas is well know as both a versatile illustrator and as an author. Among his own books are The Windy Day and Home on the Bayou. He has illustrated books by many writers, including The Flute Player by Robyn Eversole and Amy MacDonald's The Spider Who Created the World. He and his family lived in the desert setting of Arizona when he started his work on The Bone Keeper, but have since moved to Rhinebeck, New York.