1. The Skull
Written and Illustrated by Jon Klassen
The Skull got a lot of very well-deserved attention this year – even sparking a widespread conversation about the current quality of children’s literature, and the apparent hesitance for US publishers to take chances on weird books for kids. Let the kids get weird indeed, because The Skull is the best picture book of the year.
The Skull defies picture book conventions so much that I even waffled on including it on this list. I even put out a poll asking if people considered it a picture book, and 100% of responses said yes. It’s longer, it’s broken into acts, and it even has the smaller dimensions of a chapter book. But there are pictures on every page, and it’s similar in structure to Klassen’s previous picture book The Rock from the Sky in every way except the dimensions.
But, let’s be clear, once I decided once and for all that The Skull has to count as a picture book, there was no doubt about it. This simply had to be the best one of the year. It’s phenomenal. It’s spooky. It’s different. It’s exciting. It’s gorgeous. It’s an original adventure and absolutely everything that’s good about stories for kids.
Otilla runs away from home (why, we don’t really know), and finds a new home with a skull that lives in a castle. Now how can you not love a crazy plot like that right off the bat? But the story really gets good when the skull tells her about the headless skeleton that comes every single night to try and take him away. It’s just the right amount of scary.
And in the end it’s a story about friendship and standing up for the ones you love. And I personally think it might be about Otilla reaching her breaking point (a nod to why she ran away from home?) and snapping, and standing up not just for her friends but for herself, and saying you will not treat us this way. But perhaps that’s neither here nor there. Because at the end of the day it’s just a spectacularly entertaining, fun, and memorable book.
For more about The Skull, make sure to read our featured article.
