Customer Reviews

Rock Jaw, Master of the Eastern Border (Bone, Vol. 5)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The fifth and middle installment of the Bone series returns to the epic's beginnings, temporarily putting aside the Valley's violent political upheavals for a fast-paced and funny story of Fone Bone and Smiley Bone encountering an assortment of cute talking animals as they try to return a baby rat creature to its home in the mountains. On the way, they run into the opportunistic Rock Jaw, a giant mountain lion, and the two stupid rat creatures, who are still bent on baking Fone Bone into a quiche.

Probably the weakest of the Bone series, Rock Jaw: Master of the Eastern Border is nonetheless exciting and entertaining, and does contribute further development to the story's unfolding mysteries.

Steve Hamaker's coloration is again bright and pleasing, but once again he mixes up the two stupid rat creatures. Physically identical but with distinct personalities, the rats are color-coded (brown and purple) in the color version, but at one point Hamaker switches them, causing some puzzlement.

The Bone book collection is truly amazing and they are an all time favorite for my daughter who have read this since she was 10 and she still loves them now at age 13 - it is rare to find books which works on so many levels and the drawings are just truly amazing.

Reason for Reading: next in the series.

Time for a change of pace as this book focuses on Fone Bone and Smiley Bone as they go up into the mountains to release the baby rat creature cub that they found in the previous volume. Smiley has become attached to him and named him Bartelby. They meet lots of new & a few old characters and the two stupid rat creatures continue to try and catch them, Roque Ja takes them hostage and the young possums find their trail once again meeting up with a whole group of orphaned animals. Fone and Smiley meet up with every possible bad guy to date on this mini side-expedition bringing lots of excitement and the usual humour. Fone and Smiley are definitely my favourite two characters though I did miss the red dragon's usual cameo.

This is the 5th book in the nine book Bone series by Jeff Smith. This is a good installment in the series and introduces some new characters to the series.

This book deals with Fone Bone and Smiley Bone and the rat monster baby that they saved. They encounter a new (large and in charge) character, a giant cougar, named Roque Ja. Of course the Bones take to calling him Rock Jaw which pisses him off. There is much running from bad guys and trying to determine who is one who's side and just how you define good and evil.

To be honest this wasn't my favorite installment in this series. You don't get to see Thorn or Gma at all in this book and I missed them. Also I am unsure what the point of all of the orphaned animals joining the group was since they all left at the end of the story. I am assuming this will all tie together somehow...eventually. But the story didn't seem to make much progress.

There also were a lot of things I really did like though. Rock Jaw is an awesome new character and his discussion of good and evil is a..uh..good one. This is a discussion we had with my son not too long ago when we were trying to explain (to a four year old) how good and evil kind of depends on perspective. I liked that we also learn more about the history behind the valley.

There was a lot of stuff that happened in this installment that was a bit piecemeal. Having not read the rest of the series yet I can only assume it will be significant in future installments. Like in previous installments there are some very funny parts in here and the illustration is spot on like always.

Overall I really enjoyed this Bone installment, but I liked it a little bit less than the previous few. I missed Thorn and didn't understand how some of the small things that happened will relate to the rest of the story. I did really enjoy Rock Jaw though and hope we see him in future installments. I am excited to read the next book, Bone, Vol. 6: Old Man's Cave (v. 6), to see how the story progresses.

I remember reading "Bone" as it came out when I was in college and falling in love with Jeff Smith's characterization and sense of wonder. Now I am reading the books again to my five-year-old and I get the pleasure of seeing this fantastic world for the first time again, through her eyes. I can;t recommend "Bone" highly enough. It's a rare book that transcends genre, medium and age.

this book is wonderful and it has many pictures. It's adventure with a little bit of comedy which is just what I like. These books I recomend to all.

I go to the bookstore and find a book that looks good by the cover. I enver read it. I am very picky about finding the "perfect" book. And i just found it back in early March of 2007. I was on a band trip [took 3 hours] and my friend pulled out the 3rd Bone series book. I was curious and started to read it. I got a little bit confused because I didnt read the 1st or 2nd one. The coloring is amazing! It must of took forever to make it! It has alot of adventure, and keeps you wondering. I finished the 3rd book [175 paages] before we even got to our destination. I couldnt put it down! It is such an AWSOME book! on March 9th I bought book 4 and 5... I read both of the books in 3 strait hours! I cant wait untill the 6th book comes out so I can start to read it!!! If your kid wants a exciting book.. This is the book for you!

This was a terrific read. The art was stunning, the story was lovable and action packed, and the characters came alive as soon as I opened the book.
The story follows Fone and Smiley Bone as they attempt to return the rat creature orphan Bartleby to his own kind in the mountains east of the valley. However, this is not so easy due to an encounter with the malicious mountain lion Rock Jaw. Along the way, the possum kids return, along with a delightful bunch of orphans you can't help but like. This is a great book!

My 8-year-old son is crazy about these books. I probably should have read them myself first, but I didn't. He did point out a couple swear words in them. I chose to let him read them anyway. --Kelly

My seven-year old literally jumped for joy when we received book 5. He loves these books, and I had great difficulty not reading the entire book to him in one sitting. As it was, he looked at every page of the rest of the book. At bedtime, he went to sleep with the book beside him.