Joseph Bruchac’s The Skeleton Man is a fantastic young-adult read. It has just the right level of gross out and disturbing mixed with mystery and adventure. With that said, it caters to young readers with an interest in horror stories. Additionally, it offers an exploration of indigenous folklore through a terrifying tale.
A Summary of The Skeleton Man
The novel begins with the retelling of a story about a man getting so hungry that he eats his own fingers and legs. Then, he devours his family and the rest of his village. It’s brutal stuff, but completely engaging for readers. From there, the story settles into a dark mood where a young girl named Molly searches for answers. Molly, the protagonist, goes to live with her uncle after her parents go missing. Slowly, she begins to suspect that her uncle had something to do with her parent’s disappearances.
From the book description:
“Molly remembers the Mohawk legend of a man so hungry he ate himself and everyone in his village, except for one brave girl. Now her parents have mysteriously disappeared, and an unknown great-uncle has shown up to claim her. He has fingers like talons and eyes like twin blue flames. Somehow Molly must escape to find her parents – because the Skeleton Man may be more than just a legend!”
(Scholastic)
The Skeleton Man Background
Joseph Bruchac’s inspiration for the novel came from a Mohawk legend about a man who eats himself, his relatives, and the rest of his tribe. In an interview with Scholastic students, Bruchac said the idea for the novel from legends and from kids he knew.
“They are kids who have a lot of courage and ingenuity and I wanted to both pay tribute to them and also write a story that would remind other kids that even a child can defeat a monster if they use their intelligence and are brave in the face of great danger,” he said.
Furthermore, Bruchac said he wanted to write a “modern-day story about American Indians” due to the pervasiveness of stories about indigenous cultures from the past.” In an interview with Teaching Books, Bruchac said kids have made The Skeleton Man his most popular novel. This was in part due to the macabre subject material.
“It takes place in modern times, but it’s based on traditional storytelling and deals with an issue that kids are always worried about, which is losing your parents,” Bruchac said. “It puts a child in a situation where, like our traditional stories, they’re confronted with a monster. But because they’ve learned the right things to do, they can overcome or escape that monster. And that’s one of the messages in our monster stories: they’re scary, but they’re also instructive.”
Conclusion
For teachers and parents, this is a perfect story for younger readers, akin to the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stein, or Michigan’s own Michigan Chillers by Jonathan Rand. It hits all the right marks with horror tropes and mystery elements. The novel is also steeped in a Mohawk legend, which is excellent for young learners. Students and children get real-life indigenous folklore interjected into a chilling narrative.
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