Graphic Novel Review - Out from Boneville (Bone, Book 1) by Jeff Smith (5/5 stars)

Reading level: Children's/Middle Grade
Genre: Graphic Novel/Fantasy
Size: 144 Pages
Publisher: Scholastic
Release Date: February 1, 2005
ISBN-13: 978-0439706407
Stand Alone or Series: 1st in nine book Bone series
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 5/5 stars

I borrowed this from the library because I had heard a lot of great things about this graphic novel series and wanted something that me and my son could read together.  This is the first graphic novel in a nine book series.  Overall this was a great graphic novel and completely appropriate for younger children, yet complex and funny enough for adults.

Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone have been kicked out of Boneville because of Phoney's greediness.  Fone Bone gets separated from his cousins and ends up wandering through a strange valley.  There he meets Ted the Bug, horrible rat-creatures, the beautiful Thorne, the butt-kicking and cow-racing Gran'ma Ben, among many others.  He main goal in this installment is to find his cousins.

This was an awesome graphic novel.  The illustration is solid but what really makes the book are the wonderful characters, the humor, and a storyline that will appeal to both kids and adults.  This is the first book I have read in the Bone series and it is already starting to explore deeper concepts of good vs. evil, greed, etc.  There is enough slapstick and general funniness that even my four year old son gets a kick out of it; although the rat-monsters are a bit scary for him and some of the more complicated storyline is lost on him.

There are some hilarious characters here.  You've got Gran'ma Ben who can kick monster butt with the best of them, the sweet Thorne, Smiley Bone (who is crazily positive), and even a cigar-smoking dragon that only seems to appear when Fone Bone is by himself.  Fone Bone has an obsession with Moby Dick that constantly puts other characters to sleep, which is hilarious.  There are the creepy, but somewhat dopey, rat-creatures that are constantly after the Bone with the Star on his chest...these add a sense of danger and adventure to the story and hint at some greater evil lurking in the valley.

I loved every minute of this graphic novel and loved how the story is already interesting and complex.  The characters are awesome and the humor wonderful; I found myself giggling out loud a number of times.  We have only read a little bit of this with my son and he seems to be enjoying it also (he is four years old).  This is a great comic for the whole family to read together.  A great intro to graphic novels and a great way to transition from picture books to more complicated story/chapter books.  I will definitely be checking out more installments in this series.