bone: tall tales

bone: tall tales
tom sniegoski & jeff smith
graphic novels/ya
scholastic
published 2010

Long before the Bone cousins were ever lost in the uncharted desert on the outskirts of the Valley, Big Johnson Bone, the discoverer of the Rolling Bone River, founded Boneville. But little is known of the mighty explorer's adventures before he started his famous trading post. So when Smiley Bone sits down with a group of young campers to retell the legendary stories of Boneville's origin and its tough, no-nonsense founder, what they hear are tall tales in typical BONE fashion--wild antics complete with rat creatures, dragons, and a snarky little monkey!

This was a fun collection of stories about Big Johnson Bone, founder of Boneville.  How he was born and what he was like as a kid and then his super adventure saving the forest from the rat creatures.  The rat creatures always make me laugh and while there was no Fone Bone, Thorn or Gran'ma Ben it was still an extremely fun adventure.

I tried reading about the adventures of Rose, but since Jeff Smith didn't do the art it was kind of a bummer.  Luckily here he did with Tom Sniegoski writing the story and sticking pretty true to the rat creatures' attitudes.  Big Johnson Bone was kind of like all the Bone cousins combined with Phoney's penchant for exaggeration, Smiley's personality and Fone's bravery.  It was a great book for someone who wasn't ready to leave the Bone cousins behind quite yet.