Skeleton Man

by Joseph Bruchac

Paperback, 2003

Status

Available

Call number

415

Publication

HarperCollins (2003), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 128 pages

Description

After her parents disappear and she is turned over to the care of a strange "great-uncle," Molly must rely on her dreams about an old Mohawk story for her safety and maybe even for her life.

User reviews

LibraryThing member allawishus

This was quite a scary book! Molly wakes up and her parents are missing; she has to go live with an uncle she's never heard of or seen before. Soon he is locking her in her bedroom and feeding her drugged food. Molly starts dreaming of a skeleton man and a rabbit who helps to save her from him -

the dream comes from an old Mohawk legend that her dad used to tell her. Eventually, with the help of her dreams to guide her, and her own ingenuity and bravery, she is able to bring an end to her nightmare and reunite with her parents.

The author masterfully ratchets up the tension from the very first page and keeps you on the edge of your seat through the whole book - it's short, but very potent! It's still somewhat scary in the end because Molly and her family don't really know or understand the "skeleton man's" motivation for kidnapping them and torturing them.

I really liked the emphasis on Molly's agency in the book; she's repeatedly told in her dreams that she must take action to deal with her situation, that no one can save her, that she must save herself, and that she is a very very brave person.

I loved it!

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LibraryThing member emma4321

Molly wakes up one day and her parents are G-O-N-E! She gets taken to her uncle's house and well read the book!

LibraryThing member hewayzha

A wonderful, scary story. Bruchac does a great job at making this story one that could happen. Having grown up on a reservation and hearing stories similar to this brought back old, shivery memories. Molly's ability to stay cool, be brave and plan how to save her parents will make readers admire

her and want to find out how she manages to defeat the evil Skeleton Man. Even if this is a story from the Mohawk culture, it is a scary tale that will entertain any child who likes a good, scary story.

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LibraryThing member lpeal

Molly's parents mysteriously disapear and Molly is taken to live with her great uncle; the problem is she has never met him. As soon as she moves in with him she starts to feel uneasy. She keeps having dreams that feel like clues to her parent
s where abouts. She remember that her dad told her to

trust her dreams becuase Indians beleive that they tell you things. She trust her dreams and finds her parents. This is a great book about the Indian culture they kids would find very interesting. This would be a book that could be used for Indian heritage week.

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LibraryThing member lindgoldman

Molly's parents have disappeared and she must live with her creepy "uncle". The last 30 pages of this really move fast. It's great for those kids who want a scary book.

LibraryThing member fooslay

Skelton Man is about an old Native American legend about an uncle who went cannibalistic and ate himself and his family. His daughter escaped him and about a century later he has come to get her. I enjoyed this book because it was pretty scary and weird. The book did have some flaws, when it was

scary it wasn’t scary enough to give you goose bumps. It could have been better with more detail about the characters, but the storyline was good, not great, but good. This book I don’t think had any other flaws. I would recommend it to a younger audience, but not an adult audience though they might enjoy it.

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LibraryThing member chblondie97

This is a really good scary story book especially if you haven't read it yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LibraryThing member jepeters333

Interesting story - not sure it's appropriate for elementary kids. A girls parents are taken by the skeleton man and he poses as the girls uncle.

LibraryThing member ykolstad

This book is a very quick read , because it's creepily engrossing. I like the way the author presents a very strong female protagonist who uses her Native American heritage and wisdom (coming to her in the form of dreams and memories of her parents) to fight her uncle (the monster). This book is

"bone-chilling"!

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LibraryThing member heidialice

Molly’s parents disappear, and she is sent to live with a creepy, bony man who claims to be her long-lost great uncle. Her sleep is filled with nightmares, and her waking life begins to resemble them.

This book was quick, chilling and well-written. Great creepy suspense, and nice modern-day

framing of a Native American folk tale. This was not suspense with a lot of surprises: we pretty much know what’s going to happen, but we have to agonize over it while the suspense builds. Not terrifying, but a good read for younger teens who want a bit of a scare, and a quick book (114 pages).

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LibraryThing member mlwgiggles

This story relates an old mohawk tale that can reveal much about Mohawk Indian culture.

LibraryThing member VikkiLaw

More of a modern re-telling of a folk tale than a novella. The author had me at the Acknowledgments page: After acknowledging the women tradition bearers who have taught him over the years, he goes on to say, "They have helped me understand even more deeply how different the strong women in our

traditional American Indian stories are from the dependent damsels of European folktales who hope for a prince to rescue them. Not only do our Native American heroines take care of their own rescues, they often save the men, too!"

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LibraryThing member NMkimdykstra

your personal response to the book:

This is an incredibly easy, fast read. I can see how kids could get into to the thrill of it. It is a fun way to understand a little bit more about Mowhawk culture. In addition, I really loved Joseph Bruchac's acknowledgement to Native American women at the

beginning that said, "They have helped me understand even more deeply how different the strong women in our traditional American Indian stories are from the dependent damsels of European folktales who hope for a prince to rescue them. Not only do our Native American heroines take care of their own rescues, they often save the men, too!"

7. curricular connections (how you might use it with students in a classroom or school library) or programming connections (how you might use this book in a public library setting).

I think this might be fun for me to use this have my Navajo students read this story and compare/contrast it to some of their traditional stories.

This would be a good book for a school/public library to display to highlight Native American tales

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LibraryThing member AbigailAdams26

A contemporary young Mohawk girl, sixth-grader Molly loves to listen to her father retelling the legend of Skeleton Man, a terrifying figure who becomes so hungry that he devours his own flesh before turning on his family. But when her parents disappear, and she is given into the care of an

emaciated "uncle" she has never heard of before, Molly begins to fear that the story has become a reality...

The talented and prolific Joseph Bruchac, a Native American of Abenaki heritage, gives the middle-grade horror novel an indigenous twist in Skeleton Man, which successfully combines the "scary story" with elements of folk legend. Given the popularity of this genre, which tends to be dominated by more formulaic series, Bruchac's well-written offering should be most welcome.

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LibraryThing member flying_monkeys

What a perfect story to tell late at night, sitting around the fire, in the middle of the woods. I love Molly and her fierce dedication to her beliefs, dreams, instincts. The way she didn't let adults back her down, and I really appreciate that Joseph Bruchac wrote a good relationship between

parents and child and also gave Molly an adult ally. It's hard to find a book for kids in which the adults aren't all against the kids and, as a result, the kids are forced into being their own hero. In this tale, Molly is proactive because she was raised with the knowledge that she is brave and capable.

4 stars

From the Acknowledgments: "They have helped me understand even more deeply how different the strong women in our traditional American Indian stories are from the dependent damsels of European folktales who hope for a prince to rescue them. Not only do our Native American heroines take care of their own rescues, they often save the men, too!"

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LibraryThing member Robinsonstef

A spooky read aloud for older kids! Perfect in the fall!

LibraryThing member mstrust

Young Molly's family consists of just her and her parents, as she's an only child and neither of her parents have family anymore. They're a happy family and her father is able to pass on the stories he learned growing up on the Mohawk Reservation, including the legend of Skeleton Man, who had

cooked and eaten himself, then lured each of his relatives into the lodge, where he killed and ate them one by one until he came to his little niece, who was the only one to survive.
One morning Molly wakes to find her parents never came home from their night out. She's taken by Social Services and is immediately handed over to a great uncle she's never met or heard of, and despite her protests, she has to go live with this terrifying man who locks her in her room every night and has drugged her food. Molly quickly begins to see how much of her predicament mirrors the Mohawk legend.
A slim book that packs in a whole lot of scary story. Recommended.

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LibraryThing member ftbooklover

Molly's father tells her a spooky story about a skeleton man that ate all of his own flesh and then went after his relatives. Molly knows it's just a scary story until her parents disappear and she is placed in the custody of a strange man who says he is her uncle and is mostly skin and

bones.

Skeleton Man is a very short, scary story built on Native American legends and the fears of children. We don't get any real information about the uncle or who he really is. His motives are sketchy at best and none of the characters are very well developed. The purpose of the book is to be scary and it does do that very well. Overall, Skeleton Man is more of a short story than a book, but it does create fear in the reader.

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LibraryThing member ECHSLibrary

Legend has it there was a man who ate all the flesh on his bones. Then he ate his relatives. Years later, our heroine is left for the weekend by her parents. When they fail to return, a very thin man claims to be her uncle and is given custody. But, something just doesn't ring true to his story.

This book will keep you turning pages to the very end.

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LibraryThing member adge73

It's so rare to come across a book for kids that is really, truly scary, but this is one. It gave *me* nightmares, and I so would have loved reading a book like this when I was a kid. I loved reading it yesterday.

LibraryThing member jennybeast

Creepy, entertaining, with a strong, stubborn heroine. Excellent.

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