Bone Boxed Set (Books 1-3) Book

Bone by Jeff Smith Graphic novel, family relationships,
friendship, fantasy, "first crushes"

Bone is an excellent graphic novel about three cousins - Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone - who are run out of their town because of Phoney Bone's terrible political antics. Fone Bone helps his cousin, Phoney, escape, but the end up in the middle of a desert with no idea which way to go. Soon they find themselves separated in a mystical world of giant rat creatures, a dragon, and humans. Fone Bone becomes friends with and crushes on Thorn, a beautiful teenage girl with an oddly strong yet happy Grandmother, Gran'ma Ben. Soon after being separated from his three cousins, Fone Bone finds Phoney and Smiley, and Phoney and Smiley plan to ruin the progress that Fone has made with the native peoples by betting on the cow races and against Gran'ma Ben's incredibly fast cows. At the same time, the gian rat creatures are plotting to capture and kill Phoney Bone for some, mystical, age-old prophecy, but will need Fone Bone to do so.

I have never read a graphic novel until this one and I must say, I love it! It is basically a comic book made into a novel, so if it gets kids to read, then great. I really enjoyed this book because it was not a simple comic book, but had intricate plot detail and development with quality humor, sarcasm, and teenage themes. I would recommend this book to any 5th grader and above.