John the Skeleton
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
2025 Mildred L. Batchelder Award Winner
2025 USBBY Outstanding International Book
2022 Bologna Children's Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition Winner
2021 The White Ravens Catalog
2021 Tartu Prize for Children’s Literature
Everyone deserves a quiet, restful retirement. But for John, a newly retired classroom skeleton, life is just beginning. When John is adopted by Grams and Gramps and leaves the classroom to live on their farm, every day is an exciting new adventure: John rides in the car for the first time, makes a snow angel, scares away crooks, and becomes a source of comfort for Grams, Gramps, and their grandkids. With delightful illustrations and a charming cast of characters, John the Skeleton is a quirky, touching, and unforgettable book. Triinu Laan thoughtfully weaves aging and death into the fabric of life, crafting a tender portrait of what it means to care for one another, grow old together, and appreciate the little things.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A dry, quirky story from Estonian creators Laan and Plats introduces an elderly couple who give a home to a skeleton, John—once a fixture in a science classroom. In short, episodic sections peppered with colloquialisms, Grams and Gramps slip John into a warm jacket, situate the figure on their farm deep in the woods, and embark on a mutually satisfying relationship. John soon proves an intimidating presence to two would-be burglars, comforts the couple after experiences they dread (Grams feels about tree-pruning "the way Gramps does about haircuts: restless and worried"), and receives care and camaraderie (after a bath with the couple's grandchildren, John feels "like the happiest skeleton in the entire world"). Folk-naif pencil illustrations with beet-red highlights combine gentle humor with tender observation, as in a bird's-eye view of Gramps's hands repairing John's skeletal ones. And when the line between life and death blurs further in this lightly other-worldly read, John offers true companionship—as early text wisely states, "Growing up is easier when you have others around to guide you." Character skin tones frequently reflect the white of the page. Ages 5–8.
