What This Book Is About
Zach, Poppy, and Alice have been best friends for years, united by an elaborate, ever-evolving role-playing game involving action figures, pirates, mermaids, and a creepy bone-china doll they call the Great Queen. But they are in middle school now. Zach's father throws out all his action figures, declaring him too old for make-believe. Embarrassed and angry, Zach quits the game—and nearly ends the friendship.
Then Poppy drops a bombshell: she has been having dreams about the Great Queen. A ghost girl named Eleanor says the doll is made from her actual ground-up bones, and she will haunt them until they bury it in her empty grave in Ohio. Is Poppy telling the truth? Is the doll really haunted? Or is this just Poppy's way of keeping the game alive? The three friends set off on one last midnight adventure—stealing a sailboat, sleeping in parks, encountering a man who talks to aliens—and along the way, they confront something scarier than any ghost: the realization that childhood is ending and nothing will ever be the same.
Holly Black, co-creator of the Spiderwick Chronicles, delivers a Newbery Honor winner that is equal parts spooky and heartbreaking. Doll Bones is a ghost story on the surface but underneath it is about the terrifying, beautiful threshold between childhood and adolescence.
Available at Popular bookstores, Kinokuniya, and the Singapore National Library.
Why UWC Chose This Book
Every Grade 7 student at UWC is living through exactly what Doll Bones describes—the awkward, painful transition from childhood to adolescence. The book validates the grief of losing childhood while acknowledging the inevitability of growing up, giving students language for feelings they may not know how to express.
From a literary craft perspective, Holly Black's careful balance of reality and fantasy makes this an excellent text for teaching narrative ambiguity. Students must weigh evidence throughout the book: is the haunting real or imagined? This kind of interpretive reasoning builds the analytical skills UWC's English program values most.
Reading Level Guide
Accessible at strong A2. The supernatural elements keep pages turning even for developing readers.
Perfect difficulty. The ambiguous narrative rewards careful, thoughtful reading.
A quick, atmospheric read at B2. Consider The Blackbird Girls or Refugee for more depth.
Other UWC Recommended Books for This Grade
Not sure if this book is right for your child? Take our free 30-minute English assessment to find their CEFR level, then choose books that match.