This is one of the most highly acclaimed comic book stories of recent times launching as a stunning full colour graphic novel series. When the three Bone cousins - Fone Bone, Phoney Bone and Smiley Bone - are run out of Boneville thanks to Phoney Bone's greedy scheming, they have no idea what adventures await them. Separated by a cloud of locusts, the cousins find themselves lost in a mysterious valley, populated by the cute (a family of possums and a leaf-shaped bug named Ted) as well as the scary (carnivorous, sharp-toothed rat-creatures desperate to eat them). Isolated from everything he knows, Fone Bone must find his cousins again, as well as stop an evil rat creature plan and save the entire valley in his spare time. Lucky for him, he's got the beautiful Thorn on his side. Oh, and a huge, fire-breathing dragon!

Colour illustrations.

Review

"The nine-volume Bone graphic novel series was the toast of the comics world when it was published by Smith's own Cartoon Books beginning in the early 1990s; in this first volume of Scholastic's new edition, the original b&w art has been beautifully converted into color. Smith's epic concerns three blobby creatures who have stumbled into a valley full of monsters, magic, farmers, an exiled princess and a huge, cynical dragon. The story is something like a Chuck Jones version of The Lord of the Rings: hilarious and action-packed, but rarely losing track of its darker subtext about power and evil. This volume is the most lighthearted of the bunch, though, featuring some of the wittiest writing of any children's literature in recent memory--a few of Smith's gags are so delicious that he repeated them for the rest of the series. It also introduces the Bone cast's unforgettable supporting characters: the leathery, tough-as-nails, racing-cow-breeding Gran'ma Ben; the carnivorous but quiche-loving "rat creatures"; a spunky trio of baby opossums; and Ted the Bug, whose minimalist appearance (a tiny semicircle) exemplifies Smith's gift for less-is-more cartooning. The way his clear-lined, exaggerated characters contrast with their subtle, detailed backgrounds is a product of his background in animation, and so is his mastery of camera angles and choreography. This is first-class kid lit: exciting, funny, scary and resonant enough that it will stick with readers for a long time." Publishers Weekly

Author Biography

After four years of drawing comic strips for Ohio State University's student newspaper, Jeff Smith launched the comic book Bone in 1991. Between Bone and his other comic book projects, he now spends much of his time on the international guest circuit, promoting comics and the art of graphic novels.