Bone Dog (review)

Ella (a dog) makes Gus (a boy) a promise: “I’m an old dog and won’t be around much longer. But no matter what happens, I’ll always be with you.” Soon Ella is gone, and a distraught Gus doesn’t want to do anything, much less go out on Halloween night, but go he does. Dressed as a skeleton, he is mistaken for the real thing by a group of skeletons near the graveyard, who call upon him to join them in doing “skeleton stuff.” When he reveals himself as a boy, the skeletons set upon him, until Ella, his former pet turned skeleton dog, comes to the rescue. While the skeletons are unafraid of her, she howls out for a pack of “real live dogs!!!” that rush to the graveyard and make short work of the skeletons. Part friendship story, party spooky story, part funny story, this narrative suffers somewhat for its lack of consistent commitment to any one style; the humor in particular is oddly placed in the middle of seemingly scary moments, thus compromising the tone and leaving the audience uncertain how to respond. The pacing is also a little off, especially when the bone dog shows up but fails to scare the skeletons. Rohmann’s artwork is stylistically similar to the art in his Caldecott-winning My Friend Rabbit, featuring large relief prints and abundant thick black lines. The controlled palette is predominately dark blue, black, and white, with occasional touches of contrast color and additional tones for effect. Despite their seeming immobility, the skeletons are particularly animated, as they jump and dance and run about the spreads. While scary-story aficionados may be disappointed, dog lovers will likely delight in this quiet story of a dog’s devotion even beyond the grave.