Skelly the Skeleton Girl

by Jimmy Pickering, Jimmy Pickering (Illustrator)

Overview

Skelly, a little skeleton girl, finds a bone one day. Who could it belong to? As Skelly searches for the bone's owner, she questions everyone from her skeletal goldfish, to her man-eating plants, to the monster who lives beneath the stairs. Finally, Skelly locates the bone's owner—and makes a new friend. Rising talent Jimmy Pickering has created a mildly spooky and totally original cast of characters who populate Skelly's Tim Burton-esque world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416911920
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	08/07/2007
Edition description:	Repackage
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	789,425
Product dimensions:	8.38(w) x 10.32(h) x 0.38(d)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

Jimmy Pickering has illustrated a number of picture books, including Bubble Trouble by Stephen Krensky and Sloop John B: A Pirate's Tale by Alan Jardine. He also creates original art, which he shows at galleries around the globe including CoproNason in Santa Monica, California and Rotofugi in Chicago. He lives on the North Coast of Oregon with his loyal canine companions, Pugsley, Wednesday and Jesse.

Jimmy Pickering has illustrated a number of picture books, including Bubble Trouble by Stephen Krensky and Sloop John B: A Pirate's Tale by Alan Jardine. He also creates original art, which he shows at galleries around the globe including CoproNason in Santa Monica, California and Rotofugi in Chicago. He lives on the North Coast of Oregon with his loyal canine companions, Pugsley, Wednesday and Jesse.

Read an Excerpt

Skelly the Skeleton Girl

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By Jimmy Pickering

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Copyright © 2007 Jimmy Pickering
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4169-1192-0

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Chapter One

I found a BONE
lying on my floor.


I asked the SPIDER
who lived next door
if it could be his.

"No, my dear.
Simply put,
we SPIDERS
don't have BONES."

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Skelly the Skeleton Girl by Jimmy Pickering Copyright © 2007 by Jimmy Pickering. Excerpted by permission of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Skelly, a pint-size Day of the Dead girl with pumpkin-orange bobbed hair, finds a misplaced bone and seeks its owner. Pickering's (Bubble Trouble) mixed-media illustrations picture Skelly in a black dress, white petticoat and buckle shoes, exposing an eerily wide cranium and delicately articulated hands. Readers see her arm bones, ribs and pelvis only when she X-rays herself: "Could it be a bone from me? No, it wasn't mine." Skelly tickles "the monster under the stairs" to see whether "he still had his funny bone." She questions tea-sipping ghosts and man-eating plants, and gets a quick entomology lesson ("Simply put, we spiders don't have bones"). In the end, a skeleton dog digging in her garden-moviegoers will recall the pup in Tim Burton's Corpse Bride-happily claims the lost item. Despite the ghoulish subtext, midnight palette and inky backdrops, Pickering keeps the mood breezy; Skelly bats long eyelashes and the dog wags a spiny tail. Like Margery Cuyler and S.D. Schindler's comical Skeleton Hiccups, this stylized tale suggests there's nothing to fear from Halloween haints. Ages 4-7. (Sept.)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

Skelly is a little skeleton girl who lives in a spooky house high on a hill. When she finds a mysterious bone, she sets out to return it to its owner. But who could it belong to? First, she checks with her ghoulish fish, but no luck. She asks her pet bat, and it's not his either. An x-ray proves it isn't hers, and it isn't from the monster under the stairs. Perhaps it was spit out by the man-eating plants-but no. Skelly continues on her quest, asking some ghostly visitors, the spider who lives next door and her spooky dolls, but as the night passes, the bone is still unclaimed and unidentified. Then she stops for a snack and hears a noise outside her window. There in the topiary hedge is a winsome yet properly skeletal dog who is indeed the owner of the bone, and a new friend to boot. Reminiscent of the works of Tim Burton, this gothic treat is perfect for those who like to be scared-just a tiny bit. (Picture book. 4-6)

Kirkus Reviews