Doll Bones

A Newbery Honor Book
Six starred reviews!
“A chilling ghost story, a gripping adventure, and a heartwarming look at the often-painful pull of adulthood.” —School Library Journal (starred review)

Three friends embark on one last quest to help the ghost haunting a doll in this “deep, strange, and compelling” (The New York Times Book Review) illustrated middle grade horror by New York Times bestselling author Holly Black, cocreator of The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Zach, Poppy, and Alice have been friends forever. And for almost as long, they’ve been playing one continuous, ever-changing game of pirates and thieves, mermaids and warriors. Ruling over all is the Great Queen, a bone-china doll cursing those who displease her.

But they are in middle school now. Zach’s father pushes him to give up make-believe, and Zach quits the game. Their friendship might be over, until Poppy declares she’s been having dreams about the Queen—and the ghost of a girl who will not rest until the bone-china doll is buried in her empty grave.

Zach, Alice, and Poppy set off on one last adventure to lay the Queen’s ghost to rest. But nothing goes according to plan, and as their adventure turns into an epic journey, creepy things begin to happen. Is the doll just a doll or something more sinister? And if there really is a ghost, will it let them go now that it has them in its clutches?