I was skeptical when I saw the title The Skeleton and the Cat. I though it was going to be another cutesy Halloween picture book.
I was wrong. It was good. I was charmed.
The Skeleton and the Cat is a 2026 picture book by Brandon James Scott. Scott has illustrated other books (and has extensive experience in animation & kids television). This is the first book he’s both written and illustrated.
The premise is simple: there’s “a skeleton who lived by herself,” living a quiet solitary life that she valued. Then a cat showed up and invited itself in. The two move from strangers to friends in a series of brief, titled episodes: The Knock, The Sandwich, and so on.
The skeleton sometimes seems like a skeleton, as when she doesn’t really have food in the house, or when she removes her skull. The cat seems like a cat: intrusive, willful, loving, and transformational.
This book has a nice slow pace, and is very gentle. It documents how two beings who aren’t much alike become friends.
The book has a clear structure: words on the left, black on white, images on the left: full-page, colorful, and with a great sense of composition. The only pages that break with this structure fall between episodes–there’s a black left page before the title page for The Sandwich, and that page also has an image of the cat with a sandwich–or when there is strong emotions, as when they dance or look at the sky together.
A good and original book.
