By These Ten Bones [Hardcover]

Clare B. Dunkle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 2005

There's hidden places all over this land-old, old places. Places with a chain for them to chain up the wolf when it's time.

A bone-chilling tale of werewolves and love, set in medieval Scotland

A mysterious young man has come to a small Highland town. His talent for wood carving soon wins the admiration of the weaver's daughter, Maddie. Fascinated by the silent carver, she sets out to gain his trust, only to find herself drawn into a terrifying secret that threatens everything she loves.

There is an evil presence in the carver's life that cannot be controlled, and Maddie watches her town fall under a shadow. One by one, people begin to die. Caught in the middle, Maddie must decide what matters most to her-and what price she is willing to pay to keep it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This spine-tingling tale by the author of the Hollow Kingdom trilogy features a plucky heroine, a stranger with a dark secret and an angry mob. War has diminished the field of eligible bachelors in Maddie's medieval Scottish village, so when a handsome and talented young woodcarver comes to town as sidekick to a peddler, she's instantly interested. No sooner than he arrives, though, strange things start happening. Maddie fends off a menacing creature during the full moon, the young man is grievously attacked by something with sharp claws and a baby is born with "the mouth of a beast," and soon dies. The superstitious villagers have various suspects—the folkloric Water Horse; a vicious creature who lives in the loch; Lady Mary, the cronish lone inhabitant of the ramshackle castle; and finally, the carver's peddler friend, Ned, who has a taste for drink and a sharp tongue. Ned's murder (and subsequent decapitation) adds a gruesome element to this Beauty and the Beast variant. Maddie knows the identity of the real culprit, and must be willing to risk her life to end its threat. Her devotion to the carver, who is nearly mute and devoid of personality, isn't convincingly established, and the title—an allusion to the fingers of two hands—is also a bit of a stretch. Nonetheless, Dunkle creates a menacing atmosphere for this chillingly good tale. Readers will cheer Maddie on as she wrestles—and conquers—her deepest fears. Ages 12-up. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up–Maddie lives in a feudal Scottish village with a nearly abandoned castle by a loch. After an itinerant old man, Ned, accompanied by a mute woodcarving boy, stops to trade for a time, her nightmares of bones and ruin are soon followed by a mysterious attack on the boy, Paul, who is found bleeding, raked by claws, and feverish. The villagers attribute the attack to the Water Horse, which is believed to rise from the loch to wreak havoc periodically. Maddie eventually pierces Paul's silence, which is voluntary, and his secret, which is not. The moody setting lends a romantic and mysterious air, as does the cover art and the age-old theme of self-sacrifice, which will appeal to fans of the genre. If the plot seems unnecessarily convoluted, the integration of historical details of medieval village life and beliefs provides interest. Fans of Patrick Jennings's The Wolving Time (Scholastic, 2003) will likely enjoy this one, too.–Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR); First Edition edition (April 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805074961
• ISBN-13: 978-0805074963
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,439,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Clare B. Dunkle was born Clare Buckalew and grew up in Denton, Texas. She earned a B.A. in Russian with a minor in Latin from Trinity University in San Antonio and worked in Trinity University's library after earning her M.L.S. from Indiana University. For seven years, she and her family lived in the Rheinland Pfalz region of Germany not far from the Roman city of Trier. Her daughters attended a boarding school there and read her first four books as a series of letters from home.

Dunkle's debut novel, THE HOLLOW KINGDOM, won the Mythopoeic Award for Best Children's Fantasy Book in 2004. Her books have earned spots on a variety of "best book" and "core" lists, including three Bank Street nods, and her fiction has earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and The Horn Book. She lives now in San Antonio, Texas, where she writes dark fantasy and science fiction for teens. In her spare time, she reads Victorian ghost stories.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bones and blood, October 29, 2005

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: By These Ten Bones (Hardcover)

Having completely revamped goblins and elves in her Hollow Kingdom trilogy, Clare B. Dunkle turns her hand to werewolves in "By These Ten Bones." This dark little fantasy is set in long-ago Scotland, when superstitions ran rampant and witches might still be burned.

Two travellers come to Maddie's town -- a drunken old man, and a quiet young carver. Then the carver is found covered in claw marks, and is taken in by Maddie's family, while they try to find the evil supernatural creature responsible for it. But Maddie finds out the hard way when the carver -- whose name is Paul -- enlists her to chain him up in the woods for a day.

Turns out that Paul is possessed by a parasitic werewolf, which turns him into a bloodthirsty monster once a month, and it's getting stronger. And with his companion jailed (and then killed) by a thuggish villager, he has no one to keep him restrained. Desperate to save Paul -- both from the villagers and the werewolf -- Maddie searches for a cure. But to cure Paul, she may have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Like vampires, werewolves have been pretty much done to death. So it takes something special to make a werewolf story stand out the way "By These Ten Bones" does. For one thing, Dunkle reinvents the werewolf -- here's it's less a shapechanger, and more a demon. No wolfly tendencies. Just a sort of shadow with claws.

And it's all set in a very ordinary village, full of old prejudices against anyone who is different, such as the scholarly, crusty Lady Mary. While Dunkle allows that these people had good intentions, she doesn't hesitate to show all the ugliness of what they are doing. Only a few people, such as Maddie and the kindly priest, dare to be just and open-minded.

The whole thing is wrapped up in Dunkle's detailed writing, which gives the story an autumnal, faded atmosphere. She also includes some genuinely chilling moments, such as Paul's first transformation, or when old Ned's chopped-off head appears to be following Maddie.

But this is not just a horror story, or even a story about prejudice, but a love story. Maddie is a likable everygirl (not terribly pretty, by her own admission) who is has plenty of fears and uncertainties, but loves Paul enough to endanger herself. And Paul shakes off the "traumatized youth" cliche, since his curse makes his feelings all too understandable.

Clare B. Dunkle gives readers a new spin on werewolves, which isn't easy to do. "By These Ten Bones" succeeds as horror, historical fiction, and as a love story.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fabulous New Twist on Warewolves, April 28, 2005

By 

Manga Librarian "missrelena" (Hurricane, Utah, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: By These Ten Bones (Hardcover)

As wonderful and charming as her "Hollow Kingdom" Trilogy, Clare Dunkle weaves a tale of a shy young warewolf (who doesn't actually turn in a wolf) and a compassionate highland lass who gives him her heart and would give her life to save both him and her tiny Scottish village. This story is full of fun and fantasy, but also has a strong moral. It gives full voice to the injustices caused buy prejudice and assumption; as well as shining examples of what a little love, compassion and courage can do to bring out the greater good in all - even a warewolf. I loved this story, and highly recommend it to anyone with a 6th grade reading level or higher. . . but don't let the Young Adult stamp fool you. This book is a great read for young and old alike!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice, short werewolf read., August 15, 2005

By 

Lyn (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: By These Ten Bones (Hardcover)

I bought this book because I LOVED Dunkle's 'The Hollow Kingdom.'
This was a nice, quick read, but I think it fell a *tiny* bit short of 'The Hollow Kingdom.' I don't know why I feel that way, but I think 'By These Ten Bones' doesn't have as much detail, and doesn't have as colorful a setting. I also think it could've been longer.

I DID like the setting (a small village in ancient Scotland), and the cover art is beautiful. I also liked Dunkle's descriptions of the werewolves, how it is like an evil spirit--or, shadow--that takes over a living body.

I definitely recommend buying this book, but my favorite by this author is still 'The Hollow Kingdom.'