The Skull

by Jon Klassen

Jon Klassen's retelling of a traditional Tyrolean folktale.

In a big abandoned house, on a barren hill, lives a skull. A brave girl named Otilla has escaped from terrible danger and run away, and when she finds herself lost in the dark forest, the lonely house beckons. Her host, the skull, is afraid of something too, something that comes every night. Can brave Otilla save them both?

Genres: Picture Books, Fantasy, Horror, Childrens, Middle Grade, Fiction, Graphic Novels

105 pages, Unknown Binding

First published July 11, 2023

About the author

Jon Klassen received the 2010 Canadian Governor General’s Award for his illustrations in Caroline Stutson’s Cat's Night Out. He also created illustrations for the popular series The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place and served as an illustrator on the animated feature film Coraline (2009). I Want My Hat Back is the first book he has both written and illustrated. Originally from Niagara Falls, Canada, he lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Reilly Zimbric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story, said Otilla.
I did too, said the skull.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those of you who, like me, have spent Too Much Time Online: this is the book that Jon was talking about that time! He read the story in a book of fairy tales years ago, in a library in Alaska. Later, trying to find the story closer to home, he threw the details he remembered about the book onto Twitter, and a librarian found it for him in like, fifteen minutes. LIBRARIANS. THE BEST.

Anyway: This is fabulous. Jon's gorgeous, spooky, almost tactile art are perfect for this weird dark fairy tale, as wonderfully retold by Jon, and with a note at the end talking about the original and the story behind his version. So great!

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um, I loved it. The illustrations are adorable. The colors are beautiful. There are scenes that evoke warm, spooky vibes. I wish I had books like this when I was a child. 🖤

[Trevor Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wednesday Addams origin story

[Carolyn Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was FANTASTIC! The art style, the story, the darkness, the whimsy!!!

I also loved hearing about Jon Klassen’s inspiration for this reimagined folktale!!!

[Rachel Holtzclaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

let kids books be weird again!!!

[Be happy!!! Eat Bread!!! · Rating 5 out of 5]

repurposed toys... the serial killer's guide to raising ecologically minds kids...

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Author’s Note was the best part of the book! Of course, the illustrations are gorgeous and macabre, and I loved their inclusion with this folk tale. The ballroom scene was my favorite, and I’m impressed how Klassen was able to inject humor into such tight prose. However, I wish there was more to the story than what we’re given. I understand the reason for its brevity, but I want more of the mystical intrigue and fleshing-out that usually comes with a folktale.

[La loca de los libros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nuestra mayor dice que 5⭐ así que ella manda 😍

Maravilloso cuento ilustrado que me hubiera encantado leer de pequeña.
Perfecto para leer en compañía 💕
Reúne una historia con un bonito mensaje y una atmósfera lúgubre.
Perfecto para estas fechas 🎃

https://www.facebook.com/LaLocadelosL... 💀🖤📖

[destiny ♡ howling libraries · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun little fairytale. I particularly enjoyed the author's note at the end — I agree that one of the most magical things about folklore is the ways our brains re-shape the stories in our memories.

———
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[Clara Levi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pop off queen.

[Hamed Manoochehri · Rating 5 out of 5]

One night,
In the middle of the night,
While everyone else was sleep,
Otilla finally ran away.
داستان با این جمله شروع میشه. یکی از بهترین اوپنینگ لاین هایی که اخیراً خوندم. یه کلمه finally چه باری داره!

گیرایی تصویرسازیش بالاست. مونوکرومه تقریباً. خیلی استفاده از رنگشو‌دوست داشتم. اونجاها که اوتیلا حس خوبی نداره، امید نداره سبز/سیاهه ولی وقتی یه بارقه ای از امید پیدا میشه رنگ نارنجی اضافه میشه. تا آخرش که تصاویر کلا نارنجی/سیاه میشن و رنگ سبز حذف میشه.

[Bookishrealm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of Jon Klassen so I was excited to see this title releasing. Unfortunately, I didn't get to it last year, but finally got to it this year.

The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale is a retelling that takes a little darker perspective than the original tale. It follows main character Otilla who escapes from a terrible danger and finds herself at this large castle where she meets a skull that is the owner. What follows is a rather macabre, but beautiful friendship between the two.

What Worked: The artwork is STUNNING. If you've never encountered any work by Jon Klassen, I highly recommend checking it out. It never fails to blow me away. It worked so well with this darker tale. At the end of the book, Klassen reveals the plot of the original tale and I must say I'm much happier with his twist. It's dark, but not scary and really illustrates this idea that people (including children) are never what they appear to be on the surface. The friendship between Otilla and the skull was sweet and endearing.

Overall, this was a quick, quirky, and fun read. I definitely recommend checking this one out if you're looking for something that is a little darker but doesn't necessarily cross the line into horror.

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 5 out of 5]

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Jon Klassen retells an old Tyrolean folktale, and (literally) dreams up his own ending to it. A little girl runs away from home, and finds herself at a seemingly empty castle. Seemingly, because there's a talking skull there. The skull is visited regularly by a headless skeleton (presumably what once was its body?), which wants to stick the skull on its bare neck. The skull does not want this to happen, and the girl offers to help him.



Klassen's morose illustrations fit the story perfectly, very atmospheric. Great little book.

(Thanks to Candlewick for providing me with a review copy through Edelweiss)

[Reyhaneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

『هو النور』
بازآفرینی‌ تصویری از یک فولکلور تیرولی، منطقه‌ای از اتریش که ما آن را با کوه‌های آلپ محصور کننده‌اش می‌شناسیم.
درباب جادوی حافظه، کورالین و آفرینش کتاب
روزی روزگاری "جان کلاسن"، نویسنده و تصویرگر این کتاب برای کاری به آلاسکا می‌رود. در کتابخانه‌ی آنجا کتابی به نام "The skull" (به معنای جمجمه) را می‌خواند.
این کتاب برای مدت‌ها ذهن جان کلاسن را درگیر می‌کند.
پس از یک سال، او تصمیم می‌گیرد که دوباره کتاب را بخواند، اما متأسفانه نام آن را فراموش کرده است. در نتیجه، داستانی که در ذهنش مانده را به اشتراک می‌گذارد و کتاب‌داران دوست‌داشتنی و فوق‌العاده به سرعت کتاب را برای او پیدا می‌کنند.
وقتی جان کلاسن دوباره کتاب را می‌خواند، متوجه می‌شود که پایان آن با چیزی که یادش بود، کاملاً متفاوت است. حافظه‌ی او در این مدت، پایان دیگری برای کتاب رقم زده بود. بنابراین، او تصمیم می‌گیرد نسخه‌ی خودش را از این فولکلور بنویسد.

یکی از قسمت‌های کتاب مربوط به چاه بی‌انتهایی است. این عنصر خاص برای من یادآور "کورالین" بود. به همین دلیل لحظه‌ای فکر کردم شاید خواندن این کتاب یا دیدن کورالین با خاطرات نویسنده تلفیق شده باشد و باعث پیدایش این اثر تاریک و جذاب شده است.

به نظر می‌رسد در کارهای جان کلاسن همیشه یک طنز ظریف و تاریک وجود دارد که ممکن است برای بزرگسالان جذاب‌تر باشد.

فولکلور، folktale و.... چیست؟
فولکلور یا قصه‌های عامیانه، داستان‌هایی هستند که در فرهنگ عامه یک جامعه مرسوم‌اند. این قصه‌ها گاهی نگارش نشده‌اند و نویسنده یا راوی اصلی آن‌ها مشخص نیست. این داستان‌ها از نسلی به نسل دیگر منتقل می‌شوند و ذهن خلاق انسان ممکن است آن‌ها را تغییر دهد. به همین دلیل، ساختار و روند این داستان‌ها ثابت و وحی منزل نیست و انسان‌ها می‌توانند با جادوی درون خود، اثری جدید خلق کنند.

کتابی زمستانی
تصاویر این کتاب برای من یادآور زمستان و برف بودند. همزمان سرد، تاریک، تنها و وحشت‌آور بودند؛ اما نشستن کنار شومینه‌ای گرم با دوست و هم‌زبانی عزیز و نوشیدن چای، حس امنیت، صمیمیت و آرامش را به انسان منتقل می‌کرد.

پ.ن: فایل زبان اصلی کتاب را داخل کانال تلگرامم قرار دادم.
زمزمهٔ کلماتِ مکتوب

پ.ن۲: من همین الان متوجه شدم ایشون واقعا یکی از تصویرگرهای انیمیشن کورالین بودند.!!
_جمعه ۳ اسفند ۱۴۰۳

[Adrienne Blaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute in the way the skull emoji is cute. Worrisome in the way that “I’m dead inside” jokes can be. I’m suspicious of the trend towards muted colors and strictly wooden toys for children, and this seems to fit into that particular Instagram aesthetic. Perhaps this is not a children’s book but actually a bleak series of pictures featuring a child. Either way, I was predisposed to dislike this content from the start and found myself charmed by the end. It all turned on some genuinely tender and funny moments that were as subtle as the tones of brown and gray.

[Coos Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me llevó menos de media hora terminar este librito infantil, pero sinceramente hubiera estado toda la tarde leyendo sobre Otilla y el cráneo parlanchín. Es el tipo de historia que le leería a mis sobrinos para presentarles el encanto de lo creepy, sin que se aterren ni se traumen. Esta es una historia corta inspirada en una leyenda tirolesa, reversionada y con un final mucho más dulce que el original, mucho más enfocado en el valor de la amistad. No tengo mucho para agregar, pero realmente me dio calorcito en el corazón este relato, y las ilustraciones son terriblemente encantadoras.

[Rod Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

New Year's Day family picture book read-aloud celebration! (Book 1 of 5)

A dark and eerie tale with a butt-kicking protagonist.

Warning: Some kids might find this a little too scary.

Side note: This book is an adaptation of a folk tale retold in A Book of Ghosts and Goblins by Ruth Manning-Sanders, but Klassen discusses in his "Author's Note" how much he changed, so I found a copy available on Internet Archive. It's a short chapter and took only a few minutes to read, and I was happy to get the full backstory of the skull that Klassen dropped from his retelling. And it was amusing to see how visually different Klassen's interpretation is from that of illustrator Robin Jacques.

[Shaghayegh.l3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

امیدوارم این داستان یادم بمونه و قبل از خواب برای کسی تعریفش کنم. تصویرها هم فوق‌العاده بودن.

[Drew Canole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fed up with the Shapes Trilogy (which was basically a boring version of the Hat trilogy) my prayers are immediately answered with this novella written and drawn by Jon Klassen based on his faulty recollections of a traditional Tyrolean folktale.

This was great. The prose is a step-up from his kids books. I imagine this is something you'd read to a kid, then eventually see them reading it to themselves. It has enough edge that I think it'll appeal to our generation of kids! I mean have you met a 5-year old these days? They are wild beings. So I see not issue with them reading a story about a friendly skull and an evil skeleton body.

I'd read more in this style as long as Klassen keeps doing the artwork. Adapt some more folk tales please!

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet little re written folklore tale about a little girl who finds a good friend in a skull. The meaning behind the story was nice and i found the ending very cute.

The illustrations were well done and each picture created a creepy and distant feel. I liked the eerie story. Perfect for halloween. The writting style was very simple but you could appreciate it for what it was.

Many thanks to the Author, Edelweiss+ and Candlewick for a ARC in exchange for my honest review

[Therese · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up because I really loved the author’s My Hat series, and I thought it would be a quick, fun read for Halloween. Loved the illustrations, but for me, the story was pretty meh.

[Stay Fetters · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Give me that skull. I want that skull."

*Cue Skulls by the Misfits*

Otilla is living my dream. Living in a big beautiful house in the middle of the woods with a skull.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spookily adorable.

Made even better by the backstory of how this version of the tale came to be. The moral of the backstory is librarians are awesome and our minds are capable of crazy things.

[emma °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this! It was spooky and cozy at the same time.

[Canem · Rating 3 out of 5]

"'Have you lived here for a long time?' said Otilla.
'Yes.' said the skull."

This was a pointless but cute story. The artwork here was beautifully unique. I know this is supposed to be a children's story, but I found it a bit creepy, not going to lie.

[Fabiano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decisamente inquietante 💀

[Chaunceton Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Find a copy of this tale, buy it, read it, then send me a thank you card.

[Rebecca Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this charming folk tale with my five year old son, who loves anything a bit spooky! Perfect read for Hallowe'en season! Klassen's illustrations complimented the story beautifully.

[Sacha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Skull by Jon Klassen

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4*)

I picked that book up (with my girlfriend) not knowing much about the author or his previous work, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The story is quite unusual and a little spooky, but it also has a lot of heart.

"In a big abandoned house, on a barren hill, lives a skull. A brave girl named Otilla has escaped from terrible danger and run away, and when she finds herself lost in the dark forest, the lonely house beckons. Her host, the skull, is afraid of something too, something that comes every night. Can brave Otilla save them both? Steeped in shadows and threaded with subtle wit - with rich, monochromatic artwork and an illuminating author's note - The Skull is as empowering as it is mysterious and foreboding."

The book tells the tale of a young girl and right away, the eerie setting drew me in. The story is simple but has this fairy tale vibe that feels timeless. What’s especially interesting is that it’s inspired by an old Tyrolean fairy tale, which gives it a unique, folkloric feel. I loved how it managed to be both creepy and sweet at the same time. It’s not a scary book in the traditional sense, but it has just the right amount of tension to keep you hooked.

The illustrations are gorgeous and fit the tone of the story perfectly. The muted colors and minimalist style made the whole book feel like a dream. Even though the pictures are simple, they have so much personality, and every page feels carefully thought out.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. It’s a short, memorable story that’s perfect for anyone who likes something a little spooky but not too dark. Even though it’s aimed at younger readers, I think people of all ages can appreciate its mix of creepiness and kindness. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more books by Jon Klassen in the future!