Fat & Bones
And Other Stories
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Welcome to Bald's farm. Well, perhaps it's not Bald's farm anymore. The old man has kicked the bucket, setting off a wave of conflict from the flooded farmhouse kitchen to the muddy pig pen to the tall wheat fields. In this darkly funny, slightly supernatural chain of tales, no creature is safe. Not Leonard Grey, a spider with sophisticated tastes. Not Esmeralda, a resentful one-legged pig. Not Tulip, a plant with a mean streak. And as for Bones, the old man's son, and Fat, his winged rival? They'll learn that danger lurks in the strangest of places...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In seven interconnected short stories, first-time author Theule transports readers to an isolated farm whose owner, Bald, has just died, sparking conflicts that leave nothing and no one unscathed, whether human, animal, flower, or fairy. The farmer's cruel son, Bones, and the resident fairy, Fat, promptly set out to destroy the other, in the process cutting off the farm cat's tail and turning Mrs. Bald (who hasn't stopped sobbing since her husband's death) into a "mass of skin, fingernails, and hair," after she inadvertently drinks a "Skeleton Eraser" elixir. The sometimes-comic, sometimes-gruesome events and eerie rural setting call to mind the short-lived cartoon Courage the Cowardly Dog Theule's is a farm where pigs whose feet haven't been lopped off for stew mount elaborate dance numbers and where a mouse sails across a lake of Mrs. Bald's tears to profess his love. Moments of selfishness, sacrifice, bravery, and revenge jumble together in haunting and unexpected ways, and Doyle's lush b&w illustrations help establish an unsettling atmosphere that feels like Charlotte's Web by way of Neil Gaiman. Ages 9 up.
