Skulls!, not just for Halloween or Day of the Dead

We love to read non-fiction books to schools, our students and our children. When I’m the guest reader at our child’s elementary school, it’s some sort of non-fiction that I’ve got with me. Skulls! by Blair Thronburgh with illustrations by Scott Campbell is the sort of entertaining, illustrated book that kids will enjoy. Sure, our 7 year-old goofed around with the cover and said it was scary. After all, the book is called Skulls! and that’s not something that you see every day.

And that is exactly the point behind Skulls! It’s something that we see every day, yet children will only see them on certain holidays. Skulls! wants to take the mystery of the boney catcher’s mitt that holds our brain. The book uses lots of observational science to tell early elementary aged kids what it is that a skull does.

It’s full of holes. We adults may have never thought of it as such, but without a nasal cavity smelling that pizza in the oven sure would be difficult. The music coming from the stereo wouldn’t be possible either without those two holes on the side. Skulls! would be impossible to read also, were it not for those two holes in our skull that house our eyes. In other words, a skull has more holes than the six-fingered-man would need for his bowling ball, if he were to put all of his fingers in said holes-which would be horrible bowling form.

Skulls! does not present itself as a pseudo-medical journal for children. It’s intended to be a fun, light-hearted story about a young girl suddenly discovering that the bones under her face have a purpose. It also succeeds on that front and is a great good-night book. This book is fun enough, and short enough, to re-read more than once. But it also has enough details and provides enough talking points for parents to stretch the book out one time, but allowing time for questions or side stories.

Bedtime is serious business and sometimes you need to make it last, while other times require more sleep and less talk. Whichever camp you’re in, Skulls! will do the trick. This is a romp of a book that needs to invite itself over to mystery reader the next time that you have to visit a group of 5 year olds or up that are hungry for a good literary time.