Stanley thinks that if he can win, he can get his dad to come back home again, and the prize money can help pay the hospital bills. The skeleton continues to grow out of the ground, and Stanley and Jaxon try to take photos of it, so they can enter a science competition. When he’s stressed, he imagines a zombie character called Slurpy can devour all his problems, so he can continue to be helpful and supportive to his mum, his sister and the neighbour who minds them, Ms. Mostly he’s coping well, distracting himself with his favourite video game Skatepark Zombie Death Bash, and spending time with his best friend Jaxon. Stanley is struggling to deal with all the tension in his household his father left ten months ago with no explanation, his mother is working long hours, trying to cope on her own, and his young sister Mirin has a chronic illness.

The day twelve-year-old Stanly finds a finger bone growing into a skeleton in his yard everything changes-his seven-year-old sister Miren adopts the skeleton, which only children can see, as a friend and playmate, and as her health continues to deteriorate Stanly blames the skeleton and tries to drive it away, although it is the only thing that seems to give Miren any joy.The Skeleton Tree starts out as a bony finger growing out of the earth in 12-year-old Stanley’s backyard. Recommended by: Lisa Lopez, Library Media Specialist, Texas USA This is an angel-of death spin done well for middle grades.Ģ40 pages 9781338042702 Recommended grades 3-7 (Ages 8-12) Ventrella mixes pre-teen angst, real-life drama, mystery and the supernatural in The Skeleton Tree. Just what is happening to the tree and why? No one can see the skeleton but kids, and they can't see it in photos. When Stanly's best friend Jaxon takes of photo of the tree, the kids can't believe the bone aren't visible. His sister will get more attention and the caregiver from Kyrgyzstan won't have to visit again. With the prize money in hand, his archeologist dad will come back home and Mom won't have to work too many jobs.

It appears that the tree is growing bones! Stanly can save his whole family. He is excited because he thinks he can win with a photo of a weird growth on the tree in his back yard. There is comic relief in interactions with their caregiver who is from Kyrgyzstan.Īt one of his sister's many doctor appointments, Stanly reads about The Young Discoverer's Prize.

Stanly is dealing with a ton of problems: his parents are recently divorced, his mother works too much, and his younger sister has a terminal illness. Chapters are short making it an excellent choice for reading clubs and classroom reads. The Skeleton Tree is a middle grades book perfect for reluctant readers by debut author Kim Ventrella.

Skeleton Tree by Kim Ventrella