The Bones of Fred McFee

Rating:
Summary: neat but disappointing
Review: I bought this book because I love Eve Bunting's work. The words are rich and the illustrations are wonderful. However, I do not feel comfortable reading this to my preschool classes because of the ending. Just as you are starting to feel comfortable with the skeleton not being real she shows a possible gravesite and the skeleton is missing by the end of the book, as though it came to life and escaped and/or "died". While I am not concerned about some scariness in books, this one takes you by surprise and may be a little too open-ended for the younger children.

Rating:
Summary: Clickety-clack, clickety clack
Review: I stumbled across this book by chance and immediately fell in love with it. It is the perfect Halloween tale. Although recommended for ages 5 to 8, I read it to my 3 1/2 year old and she loves it! The illustrations are fabulous and very appealing to a child's imagination.

Rating:
Summary: Not THAT scary
Review: My 4 year old had no problem with the theme or the pictures, each kid is different when it comes to what scares them or doesn't. My son wanted to buy a plastic skeleton of his own after reading this book and whenever he does see a skeleton he refers to it as "Fred McFee" A fun Halloween story brilliantly illustrated by Kurt Cyrus

Rating:
Summary: a Halloween classic
Review: The Bones of Fred McFee is everything a Halloween book for children should be:

It is spooky without terrorizing. It is well written (it has an amazing economy of words). It provokes thought and discussion.

Likely the most important thing about The Bones of Fred McFee is that it is incredibly well illustrated. The illustrator of this book has what I call "a voice." Too many illustrators lack their own voice. They often suffer from being too derivative or too like other illustrators. This phenomenon is, for some reason, particularly common in Halloween books.

That is not the case here. Kurt Cyrus' pictures in The Bones of Fred McFee are brilliant, clean, and not overbearing. The spookiness is left up to the words for the most part--as it should be.

This story, about some kids who hang a fake skeleton (which they name) for Halloween should, in a just world, become a holiday classic. The eerie results and mysterious fate of the skeleton makes for an entertaining and haunting tale.

I give The Bones of Fred McFee a high recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: Ghoulish, Ghastly Glee!
Review: This book might not be for very little ones because even though the text is pretty simple, the story has a spooky mysterious flavor to it. It is filled with exciting Halloween imagery and the rhyming words of the text flow well to help the story build to its ghostly conclusion. A brother and sister get a realistic-looking plastic skeleton at the fair and they hang it up in a tree for Halloween decoration. Their imaginations begin to run wild (or is it their imaginations?) They can hear the eery clacking of the skeleton's bones as the wind blows through the bare tree branches. They have named their skeleton Fred McFee and they suspect that he may be doing more than just his dance of the dead. Why does the old dog, Sam, stay away from the tree where the skeleton is hanging? Why have the hens stopped laying and where has the old rooster gone? After one particularly windy night Fred McFee himself disappears! Where he went, no one knows for certain. Maybe that bare spot of ground is his grave! Maybe he's even here now, haunting and clackety clacking his ghoulish dance. When the wind is blowing in the dark and the tree branches are clacking together, shhhh....is that Fred McFee?! Enjoy this atmospheric and imaginative story and its wonderful, lively illustrations and explore the delicious fun of scaring yourself silly with your kids. Beware of Fred McFee!

Rating:
Summary: Ghoulish, Ghastly Glee!
Review: This book might not be for very little ones because even though the text is pretty simple, the story has a spooky mysterious flavor to it. It is filled with exciting Halloween imagery and the rhyming words of the text flow well to help the story build to its ghostly conclusion. A brother and sister get a realistic-looking plastic skeleton at the fair and they hang it up in a tree for Halloween decoration. Their imaginations begin to run wild (or is it their imaginations?) They can hear the eery clacking of the skeleton's bones as the wind blows through the bare tree branches. They have named their skeleton Fred McFee and they suspect that he may be doing more than just his dance of the dead. Why does the old dog, Sam, stay away from the tree where the skeleton is hanging? Why have the hens stopped laying and where has the old rooster gone? After one particularly windy night Fred McFee himself disappears! Where he went, no one knows for certain. Maybe that bare spot of ground is his grave! Maybe he's even here now, haunting and clackety clacking his ghoulish dance. When the wind is blowing in the dark and the tree branches are clacking together, shhhh....is that Fred McFee?! Enjoy this atmospheric and imaginative story and its wonderful, lively illustrations and explore the delicious fun of scaring yourself silly with your kids. Beware of Fred McFee!