Customer Reviews

The Kneebone Boy

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Kneebone Boy" has gotten all sorts of **starred** praise and it well deserves it in my opinion. It's a book that manages to be whimsical and magical, and yet realistic and emotionally moving as well. It's one of my favorite books for the year. Up there with The Last Summer Of The Death Warriors. (And if you haven't read this other book, get to it. It's a marvelous YA read.)

Ellen Potter's writing is thoroughly British and very witty. The kids are quirky but lovable, and their discussions with each other are intelligent and filled with filial warmth. (I'm perfectly bored with your usual dysfunctional family at this point, so this was salve for the soul.)

Their story is a two pronged Gothic thriller. One fork being what exactly happened to their mother-- who suddenly disappeared one night; the other being who is the mysterious Kneebone Boy in the mansion they come to live near.

I'd write more but I think the less said the better. This is a book to just pick up without much foreknowledge, so you can be swept away trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

Great read. Great fun. Suitable for Middle-graders and YA and even older folk.

Pam T~

This book feels like Coraline meets The Penderwicks. Maybe with a little Lemony Snickett thrown in for good measure. The Kneebone Boy is dark and wry and clever and convoluted--which is pretty much what its three main characters, two brothers and a sister, are like.

Otto hasn't spoken in years; he communicates with an invented sign language that only his siblings understand. Otto always wears a black scarf that his missing mother left him. Lucia (pronounced the Italian way!) uses her imagination to get them in trouble, though the boys seem capable of finding trouble without her help. And Max knows so many things that he gets on people's nerves just a tiny bit even though he isn't actually a show-off. The author cheerily makes all three kids good-looking, but then, they are still social pariahs because they are just plain weird, plus there are some creepy rumors floating around about what happened to their mother.

As for their father, every so often he goes on trips to paint portraits of eccentric deposed royals, leaving his children with an awful woman who makes Max squeeze the oily cyst on her neck. But this time, they are going to stay with their aunt in London. Only--she isn't there. Instead of going back to Little Tunks, the three kids stay in the city. They soon have a scary run-in with a Londoner and decide to make their way to a seaside village in search of their great-aunt, who turns out to be a colorful young woman renting a folly that's a replica of Kneebone Castle for the summer. The folly is only accessible by aerial bicycle. (How else would you cross the moat?)

Which only begins to hint at the over-the-top details in this book, not to mention the shivery gothic mysteries. The biggest one is what happened to the kids' mother. Why did she leave, and where is she now?

The Kneebone Boy simply oozes atmosphere. In fact, I was shocked to discover that the book is not a paranormal or a fantasy, after all, although some of the elements are pretty outrageous. Frankly, The Kneebone Boy seems to be crying out for some magical murk. Well, I suppose there is one little bit, but the author tosses it in and basically announces, "Here, I'll bet you want a ghost."

Then, after a good many twists and turns, a veritable funhouse experience, the ending feels a little anti-climactic because, well, All Is Explained. And this is the kind of book where you kind of wish it weren't.

Yet Potter has created three marvelous characters, and her style alone is worth the ride. (This American author does British quirk better than most Brits, up to and including mocking Americans and their bizarre love of peanut butter and jelly.) Besides, you've gotta love the surreal little version of the real world she has concocted. Hmm. Maybe The Kneebone Boy is magical realism. Or something close to it. In any case, I hope the author writes another book about the unusual Hardscrabble siblings!

This book is not a fantasy; there is no magic. Weird things happen and you think that they MUST be magical/paranormal/fantastical, but there is a rational explanation for all of it. Weird creaky (not squeaky) rats that run on the same path all the time? Taxidermy-ed miniature zebras? A hole in the floor that goes forever? A cat with five legs? All explained. Well, not the cat, but he's the most believable bit to begin with. Still, this is certainly not realistic fiction. It is precocious-kids-left-on-their-own fiction, or rich-people-are-crazy fiction. Lemony-Snicket-type fiction. Let's just call it unrealistic fiction, shall we?

Even though they live with their father, the three Hardscrabble children are pretty used to fending for themselves. Since their mother mysteriously disappeared (and both Otto and their father were suspected of killing her and burying her in the garden), their father has been sad. He's also been taking more portrait clients; former royals who have been kicked off their thrones and who don't often pay their bills. Still, the Hardscrabbles manage.

Adventure upon adventure, the kids all end up in Snoring by the Sea, a small town outside of London, where their secret great-aunt Haddie is staying. They meet a taxidermist who could easily be mistaken for a Viking invasion reenactor, take up lodgings in a castle folly with Haddie, suffer through some ghastly American food (even though Haddie never gets her hands on the "fluff" to make fluff-r-nutters), and hear the local legend of The Kneebone Boy. The local aristocracy, the Kneebones, sent all of their children to grow up in the castle folly, back in the day. That way they adults could do adult things and the kids could do whatever their hearts desired. It also kept the Kneebone children from the oldest child of each generation, the Kneebone Boy, born half-human half-animal. The Kneebone Boy was kept, every generation, locked in a tower in the castle. This is all just legend, of course. But there is something weird going on in the forest surrounding the castle and the castle folly. The Hardscrabbles are certain that the Kneebone Boy is real and that he has escaped, and they're determined not to let him be captured and locked away in his tower again.

Unrealistic fiction has the most awesome and memorable characters, and Otto, Lucia and Max are no exception. They are all precocious, sarcastic, and quick-witted little monsters, constantly attacking each other, but not in a mean way. They're all just too smart for their own good, or at least each is trying to prove to the other two that he or she is the most knowledgeable of group on any given subject (Max usually wins). Lucia, the middle child but still clearly the leader of the group, is used to Otto going along with her, her ideas, and her adventures, especially as she is his translator. She's also still stuck in the thinking that Max is just little. Too little to be of help, too little to be a friend the way that Lucia and Otto are friends, too little to make decisions for the group. Through their adventure, each of the Hardscrabble children gets more of a will of their own, and instead of making them grow up and grow apart, they realize that they not only need each other but truly like each other as well.

Book source: ARC picked up at ALA.

The Kneebone Boy is a clever, funny, captivating, and all-around delightful story. The three Hardscrabble children, Otto, Lucia, and Max, are a wonderful, appealing cast of characters, each with a host their own quirks and personalities. Otto is mysterious and silent, wrapped beneath his omnipresent scarf, Lucia is bold and quick-witted, yet not without her insecurities, and Max is highly intelligent and insightful, and always sees the best in people. From the moment the Hardscrabbles embark on their strange and humorous adventure, the reader becomes engrossed in their story. Narrated by one of the Hardscrabbles (we aren't told which one), the story is told in a unique way, relaying the tale while adding personal asides to the reader that are often laugh-out-loud funny. Ellen Potter does a masterful job of telling the story with an engaging writing style, adding in just the right details. From a castle folly to a five-legged cat to impish British expressions, every aspect of the story serves a purpose, to delight and entertain the reader. This book is a wonderful blend of witty and subtle, exciting and touching. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I recommend it highly.

The Hardscarbble children, Otto, Lucia and Max, narrate THE KNEEBONE BOY. Well, one of them does. We never find out which of the children is telling their story, but clues are dropped along the way as the story follows a very multilayered, complex, windy path. The Hardscrabbles live in the village of Little Tunks with their father, who paints portraits of deposed royalty. This is a sketchy business and the payment is even sketchier. Since their mother disappeared and a police search was conducted, rumors have flown about the town as to what really happened to her. Some suspect their father, Casper, but most think that silent, scarf wearing Otto is hiding a wicked temper that resulted in the disappearance of Tess. To add to their misery, the children often have to spend days or weeks at a time with the awful Mrs Carnival while Casper travels for his work. Lucia longs for adventure and, when the children are sent to London to stay with cousin Angela and a mix-up occurs, they get just that. After a frightening night in the city they pool their resources and decide to head to the town of Snoring-by-the-Sea after finding a cryptic letter from Casper's "loving aunt-in-law," Haddie Piggit, a woman they have never met. They find Haddie living in a castle folly, a word for a structure that is often not much more than a fancy garden decoration. In this story, the castle folly is a miniature replica of Kneebone Castle and was used as a playhouse by the Kneebone children. Hattie is renting it, spending the summer away form her home in America. Once in Snoring, the children meet a taxidermist who drives a horse drawn hearse, learn the legacy of the Kneebone Boy, think they have seen the Sultan of Juwi (one of the deposed royals who's portrait Casper painted and who is on the run from the assassins who killed his family) and get closer to solving the mysterious disappearance of Tess as they get to know her aunt Haddie, who is actually three years younger than her niece, the children's mother.

Ellen Potter has a true gift for taking a difficult, painful and even traumatic childhood event and wrapping it in a fascinating, funny story with an embrace like a warm, colorful scarf on a cold, grey day. Her previous book SLOB, is one of my all-time favorites, right up there with WHEN YOU REACH ME, which won the Newbery in 2010. You may be thinking that THE KNEEBONE BOY doesn't sound as complex and multi-layered as I proclaimed. It might be sounding like Lemony Snickett's "Series of Unfortunate Events", Lois Lowry's THE WILLOUGHBYS or Trenton Lee Stewart's THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY. And, while it shares many similarities with these other great books, THE KNEEBONE BOY goes beyond. To top it off, there is no magic in the book, or, as the heading for chapter 11 proclaims, "In which there are no vampires or ghosts, but you'll like this chapter anyway." At one point, when things are getting pretty strange and you think a bit of magic or magical realism might be creeping in to the story the narrator even pauses to inform you that it "is not that kind of story." Another amazing thing, there are no horribly mean adults, (á la Snickett, Dahl) and no evil villains (á la Snickett, Stewart) and no head-scratching endings (á la Snickett.) Potter takes the various plots of her story, the various genres employed and blends them together for a satisfying, believable end that, while it might leave you scratching your head, does so not because of holes in the plot but because you wonder why you didn't see it coming. The Hardscrabbles are kids that readers will think about and remember for a long time after they have read the last page of the book - I know I did.

(This review originally appeared at Young Adult Books Central: [...])

I'll let you in on a secret. I had to race to finish reading The Kneebone Boy in time to write this review. Not because I had a hard time reading it: in fact, I found it a pleasantly gripping read. No, the problem was that my son had picked it up off my desk and then disappeared with it. For weeks. That alone is rave-review enough. He views anything I'm reading with great suspicion, as if it were broccoli in book-form, (wholesome, good for you and not all that much fun to consume). This book however, was a hit.

The Kneebone Boy, by Ellen Potter, lets you in on a secret too--on many secrets, really. Along the way, there are mechanical rats, hidden passages, a mighty dragon-slayer, Fluffernutter sandwiches, a deposed Sultan, missing relatives, a local legend and three resourceful, intelligent children--and all around and through the story, like a wisp of fog, slinks the sense that the world is a stranger, more mysterious place than the grown-ups would have us believe.

However, The Kneebone Boy also suggests that the world is far more normal than we might hope. No matter how strange or unbelievable an event, story or person seems to be (a five-legged cat, an imprisoned child-monster, a stuffed miniature zebra), sooner or later there is a logical(ish) explanation.

The book tells the story of the three Hardscrabble children who, having been sent to stay with an aunt by their distracted, artist father, instead find themselves lost and alone in London. They flee the city, landing at the miniature castle their American great-aunt is currently renting. Adventures ensue, much to their delight, because it is important, as Lucia points out, to have at least one big adventure before you turn fourteen and start to become dull and grown-up. Fourteen, as JM Barrie didn't quite say, is the beginning of the end.

The whole story is narrated by Lucia, although like Oswald Bastable of The Treasure Seekers (another very self-conscious narrator), she refuses to directly reveal her identity. However, she's quite happy to tease the reader with asides about what is coming up next, as well as how hard it is to write a book. That the book knows full well that it is a book is part of this circularity of fiction and reality.

In the end, if there is anything I would quibble about, it is that The Kneebone Boy is almost too conscious of itself as a work of fiction to be utterly satisfying. How many layers between ourselves and what is Real can we tolerate before we stop believing in anything, like some less-than-utterly-royal princess who just doesn't notice that darn pea? The Kneebone Boy remains, however, a fun, engaging and original (a word I don't use lightly) work of fiction and one you should keep fast hold of, lest your child (or parent) attempt to abscond with it before you finish.

The Hardscrabble children are seen in their town as odd. And who can blame the townspeople? Lucia, the lone girl in the trio of siblings, appears to this writer to be the mystery narrator. Guessing who, in fact, narrates this quizzical tale will no doubt delight my middle grade readers. Then there's older brother Otto, who doesn't talk and wears a scarf given to him by his long lost mother on the night she left the kids. And lastly, there's Max, the intelligent one. The brothers and sister don't stay long in their conventional town of Little Tunks, though. The trio begin to suspect there's more to the story of their mother's disappearance than meets the eye, and they embark on a quest to discover the real truth behind her absence.

Along the way, they stumble upon an odd cat, a long lost American relative who disgusts their English sensibilities with American oddities like peanut butter and jelly, a castle complete with a dragon and St. George, and of course, The Kneebone Boy. The title character isn't actually introduced until well past the halfway mark, making the book difficult to put down. Who doesn't want to continue reading to find out just who IS The Kneebone Boy, after all?

The twists and turns keep the reader engaged and guessing, and the surprise ending will never be suspected in a million years. I especially liked how the author, an American writing with the distinct voice of an English child, artfully takes on the voice with style. Lovers of her SLOB will be pleasantly surprised in the absolute polar opposite writing style Potter so successfully adopts. Her writing strength is simply admirable. I am positive that my students will thoroughly enjoy this adventurous romp through the wild, silly and ultimately redemptive story of family.

*Written by a 5th grade reading/writing teacher who chose this delightful read as her first book club book of the year. It was a resounding success!

Favorite passages:

"Don't you remember what Hattie said?" Lucia replied. "That people should have all their adventures before they're fourteen because if they don't they lose their passion for adventures. What if we get older and forget what it's like to want a big adventure. What if we become like all other grown ups, only thinking about how much money we make every year and if we've remembered to lock the door at night. I couldn't bear it, Otto." 237-238

So I guess this story's ending is what they call "bittersweet." In other words, things did not turn out the way the Hardscrabbles had hoped they would, yet somehow it all came out right anyway. Which I rather suspect is how life works in general. 278

This is my first Ellen Potter book, and boy have I been missing out on her books. The Kneebone Boy has a voice I've not read before and one that was so intriguing, that it would easily appeal to middle grade, YA and adult readers alike. I'll admit, I was completely memorized with the voice and the story, even though it took me a few chapters to really get into the story.

The Kneebone Boy has a very fascinating setting, that is set in timeless England. The feel reminded me a lot of Lemony Snicket's. Though the story is about the three Hardscrabble Children, Otto, Lucia and Max, you have no idea which one is really telling the story. I really liked their characters- charming, witty and a little dark, the children have an independence and sense of adventure I admired. Their father, who often travels for weeks at time to paint portraits of dignified people, leaves the children with a sitter, Mrs. Carnival. This time when their father sends them to stay with his cousin Angela, who lives in London. The children arrive and soon find there's been a huge misunderstanding and Angela is away in Germany. Left with little money and no where to sleep, the children venture to find their Great Aunt Haddie, who's staying in a castle folly in a remote seaside village where rumors of the Kneebone boy have circulated for years.

I really love how the story becomes more twitted once the children arrive to an area rich in Kneebone history, tucked among the edge of the sea called, Snoring By The Sea. Hoping to find answers into their Mum's disappearance, the children are about to realize nothing is as it seems. They have a castle to roam about in, the Kneebone Boy to find, and they seek answers to where their Mum may be, to which their spirited Aunt Haddie has yet to give them. To keep this spoiler free, I will say Ellen Potter has done a beautiful job at telling this story, as her plot twists have left me feeling both satisfied with the story and wondering how I didn't see "that one" coming.

This is truly one of those books where I am left scratching my head and in awe of Ellen's ability to tell a wonderful story. Not only does the cover match the story and the characters perfectly, but it's a well written, well told story and one I will read again. The Kneebone Boy is a clever, fascinating, witty book, and one I highly recommend.

The Hardscrabble children are in for an unexpected adventure when their artist father is called out of town suddenly and the adult who was supposed to watch them turns out to be out of the country as well. Luckily, little brother Max has an alternate plan which may also help them to solve the mystery of their missing mother.

While I thought the writing good and enjoyed the Lemony Snickett-ish narrator interjections, I had trouble connecting with the characters. I also felt the story took too long to get to the part of the book about the Kneebone Boy and actually I was quite disappointed that he turned out to be such a small part of the story since that was the title of the book. I guess I differ from the other reviewers as this was just a so-so read for me.

This book promised to be delightfully quirky, and it is! I had not ever read anything by Ellen Potter, but she was definitely on my radar after reading a few reviews of some of her earlier works.

The Kneebone Boy is the story of the Hardscrabble children. Otto, Lucia, and Max range in age from 13 to 10. Their mother "went missing" years ago, and their father travels frequently for his work as a royal portrait artist. When their father goes out of town on this particular trip, they are sent to London to visit their cousin, and that's where the adventure begins.

There are so many things to like about this book, and so many things that will appeal to middle grade readers:

1. The cover -- It's compelling, but even more than that, it's 100% accurate! This is not something to be taken for granted. I can imagine children flipping back and forth from the descriptions in the book to look at the cover the whole time they are reading it (Why can I imagine that? Well let's just say that I did my fair share of flipping!).

2. The tone -- The story is told from the POV of one of the Hardscrabble children: "I can't tell you which Hardscrabble I am, because I've sworn on pain of torture not to. They said it's because the story belongs to all three of us, and I suppose they're right, but it seems unfair since I'm doing all the work. No one can stop you from guessing, though." (ARC page 2). I don't think it's a mystery. Any semi-observant reader knows by the end who the narrator is. The story is told in this chatty style throughout, with all sorts of personal asides. It would make a great read-aloud, but it I would think that this type of storytelling would be easier for a reluctant reader to follow as well.

3. The adventure -- It's not everyday that three children end up on their own in a city, adopting a strange pet along the way, living in a castle folly, meeting estranged relatives. . . . This is an adventure story, but a realistic one.

4. The delightfully Dickensian chapter titles -- "In which the Hardscrabbles worry about the title of this book and other things," "In which there are no vampires or ghosts, but you'll like this chapter anyway," "In which something awful happens, but I can't say what it is." Don't overlook the titles when you are reading.

Content Note: There are one or two uses of a mild swear word, but it is pretty much free of objectionable content for kids in 3rd or 4th grade and up. I think it's a perfect fit for an older middle-grade reader, which I appreciate as the parent of an older middle grade/young YA reader. I love that a clever, thoughtful, funny, adventurous book like this is available to tempt children to be children a while longer, instead of teen wannabes.