Review Detail

Skeleton Tree

Middle Grade Fiction 463

Story of love and loss

January 28, 2018 (Updated: July 01, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Stanly's life is difficult-- his father has moved out, and his mother is trying hard to make ends meet as a clerk at Walgreen's. Stanly and his sister Miren are fortunate to have Ms. Francine, who is from Kyrgyzstan, babysit for them. Miren has been very ill with some sort of respiratory problem. One day, Stanly finds a bone growing in the yard. It looks suspiciously like a skeleton, and as the days pass, the bone does grow into a full skeleton that Miren names "Princey". Only the childrn can see the skeleton, but Ms. Francine takes the children's concern about him seriously. Stanly and his friend Jaxon hope that they can submit a picture to the Young Discoverers competition and win the prize money, but strange things happen when they try to photograph the skeleton. As Miren's illness worsens, Stanly comes to the conclusion that while the skeleton seems to make Miren feel better, this might not be the best thing. With the help of Ms. Francine, he tries to come to terms with what is happening with his sister.

Good Points

For a book dealing with the impending death of a child, this was surprisingly readable. I wish that Miren's ailment had been given a name; throughout most of the book, I assumed she was suffering the effects of cystic fibrosis, but toward the end of the book it is hinted that she actually has some sort of cancer.

Jaxon and Stanly's attempts at photographing the skeleton, and their insistence on entering the competition so that Stanly's family can have some more money are admirable and realistic. It is very easy to suspend disbelief and accept that there is, in fact, a skeleton growing in Stanly's yard. Ventrella gives enough details about trying to hide the skeleton from neighbors and delivery boys, and tells us more about Miren's interactions with it once we start to understand the true nature of its being.

Ms. Francine is an interesting character; since the mother is so frantic and harried, Francine is a great, philosophic counterpart who has time to explain things to the children and take them on fun outings for which their mother does not have time. She gets the quotable lines like "The ones you hold dear never leave you", which is a lovely, if basically untrue, thought.

For a book that is so philosophical, it moved quickly and kept my interest. While this is not as spooky a story as the cover might indicate, I can see it being popular with readers who enjoy books like Benjamin's The Thing About Jellyfish and Goebel's Grave Images.