Billy Bones: Tales from the Secrets Closet - Lincoln Christopher

Playfully spooky, cool, and full of imagination.

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Book details

Author:Lincoln Christopher
# of pages: 304
Publisher:Little, Brown & Co.
Original Publication Date: 08/01/2008
Genre: Fiction - Mystery
Paperback: $10.99
Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 9-12
Read Aloud: 9
Read Alone: 9

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that there's a murder and attempted murder in this book. Lots of talk of the afterlife and death, but it isn't graphic or particularly scary.

Families can talk about lies and secrets. How can lies make life harder? What about secrets? Is there ever a way to keep a secret safe? What are the benefits of releasing a secret?

Message
Violence
Sex
Language

Message

Social Behavior:

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Adults drink alcohol.

Violence

Death tries to take a soul and the person describes it, a pet is killed, a young boy is starved to death and he is described to be wasting away, but there's no death scene. A group of people are threatened by a man with a shotgun.

Sex

Language

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Terreece Clarke

Billy Bones is a skeleton who lives in the secrets closet at High Manners Manor. Billy's parents organize the secrets, lies, etc., of the Biglum family, and they always have lots and lots to organize. When a new family member moves into the manor, things begin to change. New mysteries pop up, including secrets surrounding his own family. Billy and his new friend Millicent must unravel the mysteries before the evil Sir Biglum can wreak havoc on all their lives.

Is it any good?

BILLY BONES is great fun. It's spooky, cool, and full of imagination. Readers will enjoy hanging out with ghosts, Death -- who's known as "Uncle Grim" -- and the sinister manifestations that lurk all over the Biglum home. A series of secrets and mysteries are at the center of this story and author Christopher Lincoln guides his audience through them artfully, teasing and revealing clues at all the right moments.

This is a book that kids will have a hard time putting down. If there was ever a way to bring warmth and likeability to the Grim Reaper, skeletons, and ghosts, this book did it so successfully it feels almost normal to find a skeleton drinking cocoa in the closet. The novel has a good pace and a great message: secrets and lies are always exposed to the light of truth.