Skeleton Man

This was another book that I had no idea that I had already read before searching for the book on goodreads to add a review. I think a lot of the books that I read in 2009 made very little impact on my memory, most likely because I read them too quickly. This book was an attempt at instituting some classroom order in one of my most difficult classes during "flex time" (extra time that we have before lunch and outside of regular class time). Most of the students were highly engaged in the story despite the slightly sub par narrator. (I will always compare every audiobook narrator to Jim Dale and with the exception of a rare few like Rob Inglis, all will fall short.) This book is not one that I would likely have been interested in but may have been one that I would have finished because it was on a list of required reading. Bruchac creates a compelling narrative that kept the kids engaged even with the breaks in the narrative from day to day. As a teacher, I appreciate that. As a reader, I was not engaged but that was more a matter of taste than author's skill. I definitely would recommend this book as an option for middle school readers or middle school ELA teachers to offer as a choice for their students.

Molly's father tells her a spooky story about a skeleton man that ate all of his own flesh and then went after his relatives. Molly knows it's just a scary story until her parents disappear and she is placed in the custody of a strange man who says he is her uncle and is mostly skin and bones. Skeleton Man is a very short, scary story built on Native American legends and the fears of children. We don't get any real information about the uncle or who he really is. His motives are sketchy at best and none of the characters are very well developed. The purpose of the book is to be scary and it does do that very well. Overall, Skeleton Man is more of a short story than a book, but it does create fear in the reader.