Gonna Roll the Bones

Rating:
Summary: DISAPPOINTING ADAPTATION OF A GREAT STORY
Review: "Gonna Roll the Bones" by Fritz Leiber is one of my favorites stories and when I learned that David Wiesner was adapting it into a picture book I had high expectations. After all, the idea was loaded with promise: Wiesner, winner of a Caldecott Honor Medal, is an extremely talented illustrator who has conjured up beautiful books with his precise, whimsical watercolors and seemed to be well suited to illuminating the dark magic and dense imagery found in this story.

Leiber's tale, "Gonna Roll the Bones", was first published in Harlan Ellison's watershed anthology DANGEROUS VISIONS and won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, is one of Leiber's best; a marvelous story of the Devil and a ne'er do well gambler (Joe Slattermill) rolling dice with Joe's soul as the wager. I won't spoil the tale's surprising and important pay off which has been excised right out of this book.

The abridgment of Leiber's story is the first problem with this book; all of the story's poetic language, subplots and evocative ambiance disappear in the condensed text. Of course, since the story is being adapted as a picture book, this abridgment would be acceptable if the imagery and mood of the lost prose were recreated by the illustrations. And, unfortunately, the style Mr. Wiesner has chosen to illustrate the story fall far short of this task.

The illustrations in the book are monochromatic drawings done in pencil on vellum to resemble old time sepia tones in a photo album. They're drawn in a sketchy linear style with little detail, minimal modeling and far too few darks that fail utterly to invoke the spooky magic of Fritz Leiber's prose.

In his afterward Mr. Wiesner tells us that he first adapted this story as his senior year project while a student a the Rhode Island School of Design as an "attempt to create a wordless picture book" because the story captivated him and he "was excited by the imagery which was so rich with detail and atmosphere." Sadly, these are the very things absent from this book and its illustrations.

Sorry, but I can't recommend this one.




Rating:
Summary: Who is this book intended for?
Review: A man tired of his house and his family foes out to play craps at a place callee the boneyard in this dark fable. lThe illustrations progress from forboding to downright scarey. There is a lot of text for a picture book, and while the story is interesting and exciting, I am puzzled by the "Caldecott Medal" marketing. This book is not appropriate for young children because of the scarey pictures and long story.

Rating:
Summary: halloween reading!
Review: spooky, but not scary, this atmospheric picture book by david wiesner based on the well-known fritz leiber novella is a trick of the eye and a treat!