The Skull by Jon Klassen
Hardback published by Walker Books 11th July 2023
ISBN 9781529509571
Pages 112
This is an old story. It is about a girl named Otilla who runs away. It is also about a house in the woods, and a skull who lives there, and a secret the skull has, and the night that Otilla finds out what that secret is.
MY REVIEW
Although this book is for 6 to 8 years, I personally absolutely loved, loved this spooky adaptation of a Tyrolean folktale, about of a little girl named Otilla, who is running away from danger through the woods. She finds a house in the woods where only a skull lives. The skull every night is frightened of a headless skeleton that’s trying to take skull away, but brave Otilla has a plan in action for the headless skeleton, to save the skull. Author and illustrator Jon Klassen has adapted the book with the most beautiful monochromatic illustrations, I have ever seen.
I found the authors note fascinating.
Jon Klassen, actually found this story of The Skull in a library in Alaska. He was there to do a presentation. He started to look at the books on the shelf before he started his presentation. He picked out a book of folktales when he looked at the table of contents he could see it was a story called The Skull which he thought was a good title. Jon stood there and read it, put it back on the shelf, did his presentation and left the library.
He thought about the story on the plane back home. Jon thought about that book every now and then for about a year. Finally he thought he should read the story again. But he couldn’t remember the name of the book. So Jon wrote to the library in Alaska and told them about the skull story and somehow the library found the book. When he sat down and read the story again he was surprised it wasn’t the story he remembered. In the year in between his brain had changed the story.
This is a very interesting thing that our brains do to stories. If you read this book once put it back on the shelf, and a year from now someone will ask you how this story went, the same thing will happen your brain will change it.
I would like to thank Walker books for sending me this excellent book to read for a honest review
About author Jon Klassen
Jon Klassen is the creator of the #1 New York Times bestseller I Want My Hat Back, which was named a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book, a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the Year, and a Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of the Year. He returned with another hat and another thief in This Is Not My Hat, which won the Caldecott Medal became a New York Times bestseller. He is also the illustrator of House Held Up By Trees, a picture book written by Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Ted Kooser, as well as Cats’ Night Out by Caroline Stutson, which won the Governor General’s Award; Extra Yarnand Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett; and the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series by Maryrose Wood. Jon Klassen has worked as an illustrator for feature animated films, music videos, and editorial pieces. His animation projects include design work for DreamWorks Feature Animation as well as LAIKA Studios on their feature film Coraline. Other work includes designs for a BBC spot used in the coverage of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, which won a 2010 BAFTA award. Originally from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Jon Klassen now lives in Los Angeles.
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