Reviews for The Summer of the Bonepile Monster

The average rating for The Summer of the Bonepile Monster based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-06-20 00:00:00 Karin Irvine Aileen Kilgore Henderson is a natural-born storyteller. She is the most recent recipient of the West Alabama Arts & Humanities Award for Literature and an impressive bio appears of her in the Encyclopedia of Alabama. She is, in short, a state treasure. 'The Summer of the Bonepile Monster' won the Milkweed Prize for Children's Literature way back in 1995, but it is as vibrant today as it was then. Her books speak to a time some might say is now lost--where children were free to explore the world and through this, learn about people, the environment, and themselves. In this novel, eleven-year-old Hollis Orr and his sister are sent to spend the summer in a rural Alabama community, Dolliver, while their parents sort out marital difficulties. Hollis spends the summer summoning up the nerve to solve a community mystery that has created fear among residents for years--that of the bonepile monster. He also befriends a singing mouse (yes, there really is such a creature), slays kudzu in the peanut patch and enjoys their flowers' smell of strong grape Kool-Aid, learns a lot about dinosaur bones, befriends two young boys, lots of dogs, two cats, and a host of others. In the process, he learns he has strengths and abilities, and therefore, inner confidence and happiness, that will serve him well as he returns to his urban life.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-10-11 00:00:00 Dean Thompson On the very first page you are drawn into Hollis and Lou's problems. They are packed off to their grandma's for the summer. On the way to way to grandma's house they pass a fence all boarded up and sings of keep out. Hollis is not sure what is down there, but he wants to find out. He picks up clues here and there, when the neighbors and grandma let some things slip. Then he see a figure watching him as he fights the battle of the kudzu. Is it the monster? He follows it into the woods. I don't like being a spoiler so you will just have to read this book to find out what happens to Hollis.