138: Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith

Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith (Canada) - (US)
Bone, Vol. 1

Pages: 138
Ages: 9+
Finished: Jun. 7, 2011
First Published: 1991, 1992 (2005, colourized)
Publisher: Scholastic
Genre: children, graphic novel, fantasy, humour
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

Still no sign of the townspeople.

Acquired: Purchased a new copy from an online retailer.

Reason for Reading: One of my goals this year is to finally read this series!  So, here I go!

Volume One of the Bone series was everything I had hoped it would be.  This has been on my must read list ever since Scholastic came out with the colourized editions, so that would make it six years of getting around to it.  Happy to say I was not disappointed.  The characters are adorable.  The writing is funny, even witty, and an interesting journey has begun with a bad guy after one of our heroes for unknown reasons at this point.

The Bone cousins, Phoney, Fone and Smiley have been run out of Boneville, crossed the desert, get lost in the mountains and are separated.  We follow Fone Bone, who I believe is our hero, as he is certainly the most likable of the three, as he finds a valley and meets the people and creatures there while he searches for his missing cousins.  So far my favourite characters are Fone, of course, Ted the bug, Gran'ma Ben and the Red Dragon.  Sometimes when one has heard nothing but praise for a book (or series) over the years, once you actually get to reading it yourself there is a bit of a letdown.  I'm pleased to say that Bone, from the start, has lived up to it's expectations.  Can't wait to start reading Vol. 2.