about the book
If you are looking for a cute story about a dolly, go back to the library and grab another book. This tale will keep you up at night!
Best buddies Zach, Poppy, and Alice have great imaginations and over the years they have been making up an elaborate tale involving pirates, thieves, warriors, mermaids, and an evil queen. They enact the tale using old Barbies, action figures, old thrift store finds, and an antique bone china doll. This incredibly creepy doll, which they have designated as the Queen, belongs to Poppy’s mother and is strictly off limits. Though she sits locked in a china cabinet, she reigns in all of the scenarios the three imagine.
But things are about to change. Zach’s father just returned and he’s not happy to see his middle school son playing with dolls. He tosses the toys away and insists Zach play age appropriate sports. Embarrassed, Zach lies to the girls about why he will not play anymore. Poppy and Alice are left hurt and confused.
Then Poppy starts to have nightmares. When she takes the china doll out of the cabinet, she releases a ghost! She learns the bones of a murdered girl named Eleanor have been ground up and are in the doll. The ghost declares that unless her bones are laid to rest, she will make the childrens’ lives miserable. The sinister china doll needs to be buried in the empty grave in Ohio.
Zach’s not sure if the haunting is real, but his friends are in trouble, so he goes along on this last epic journey, one that will actually take them cross country. You will not believe the quirky people they meet along the way and the unexplained events they encounter.
And the porcelain Queen—well she just keeps getting scarier and scarier and scarier!! This is no longer a childish backyard game!
about the author
In this book, Holly Black trades in her dark faeries and goblins for something a little more ghostly. Her creatures are always on the edgy and dangerous side, especially the old china doll in Doll Bones. Holly received a Newbery Honor for how she handled a sinister spirit and the three coming-of-age children who quested to find its burial plot. Doll Bones was called “perfect” by The New York Times.
As a child, Holly believed in ghosts because her mother did. She was originally afraid of the spirits, but that turned to fascination. She grew up in a decrepit New Jersey Victorian house filled with books, several of them about ghosts. Always interested in writing, she studied English lit at The College of New Jersey. She is two classes away from a Library Science masters at Rutgers University.
Holly lives in Massachusetts with her husband Theo, an artist whom she met playing Dungeons and Dragons in college. Their house is a bit on the spooky side—they even have a secret library!
Holly has three cats—hairless demon Lily, grumpy Persian Fizzgig, and stray White Cat (Holly admits that she is too superstitious to change his name). She collects cool shoes and went to two proms in 2009!
Sources:
Author website
Author interview : Seven Impossible Things before Breakfast
Author page : Amazon
Book trailer: Doll Bones
Also by Holly Black:
The Copper Gauntlet (Magisterium, Book 2) with Cassandra Clare. Scholastic. 2015.
The Iron Trial (Magisterium, Book 1) with Cassandra Clare. Scholastic. 2014.
The Spiderwick Chronicles series with Tony DiTerlizzi. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. 2003-2004.
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The Iron Trial (Magisterium, Book 1) by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare
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