Black, H., & Wheeler, E. (2013). Doll bones. New York, NY: Doubleday Children’s Books.

Zach, Poppy and Alice have always been friends.  They love playing with action figures and, imagining worlds where they participate in adventures.  Suddenly at one point, Zach’s father throws out his action figures declaring that he is way too old to be playing with them.  Zach decides that he is going to stop playing altogether, and quit being friends with Poppy and Alice completely.  The girls go visit him and tell him about a succession of strange and eerie events.  Poppy is convinced that she is being haunted by a china doll that claims to have been made of the ground up bones of a murdered girl.  They decide they have to return the doll to the girl’s home or they will be cursed forever.  Eventually they find themselves at the cemetery where Zach breaks down and confesses what his father did with his figures.  He lies down at a “willow” in the cemetery and this is where they bury the dolls.  They end up returning to their respective parents agreeing to keep their story alive.

This book was seriously creepy.  With a lexile of 640, its target audience is grades 5 – 9.  I enjoyed the suspense of the novel and its approach to dealing with “growing out of” certain things.  I think kids this age will be able to relate to having treasured items thrown away without a care.  I felt the text was well written and that the character development helps to make them characters you want to know and invest in.  The game played by the kids is one that younger students might enjoy and it can be used to teach kids plot development.  Playing the game can also build critical thinking skills as they try to figure out what they want to happen and where they want their imaginary characters to end up.  While I would recommend the book, 8=9I was bothered by the sudden ending.  It almost felt anti-climactic.