Cary Fagan’s 2022 picture book Boney is interesting and nicely original. When Annabelle, her father, and their dog Scoot go for a walk in the woods, Annabelle finds a bone. This immediately starts speculation on what kind of bone it could be. Annabelle asks for, and gets, permission to take the bone home. Once they get the bone home, they wash it, and then–and this is the original bit–the bone becomes Annabelle’s pet. She decorates Boney, takes it with her, and, eventually, dreams of the animals that might have produced the bone. This makes her sad, and, when Scoot digs a hole in the backyard, she buries the bone. She says a brief…reflection? Prayer? over the bone, which her friend labels as a poem.
I love the premise of this book. It is very true to childhood–the joy of finding, the weird toys, the sudden shifts. Living with–sometimes sleeping with–death is brave for the genre. Dasha Tolsikova’s illustrations have a dream-like, child-like feel to them.
I have just one concern or caveat: the resolution seemed too easy. The book felt like we were headed for depth. What we got was more of an interesting blip.
