When Stanley Stanwright finds a bone poking out of the earth in his back garden, he is determined to take a picture of it and send it to the Young Discoverer's Competition, thinking it will help bring his dad back home. But the bone begins to grow, reaching up out of the ground until it turns into a skeleton - a skeleton with an unusual interest in his unwell younger sister Miren.

As time wears on, Miren's condition worsens, and the only time she is truly at peace is when she is playing with the skeleton. But Stanley is wary of him, especially when he finally manages to get a picture, and spots a scythe at the skeleton's feet. . .

Skeleton Tree by Kim Ventrella is a whimsical, heartfelt story about a boy who finds a friend in Death with the help of an unusual tree growing in his back garden. With black line illustrations throughout by Victoria Assanelli.

This book has been graded for interest at 9-12 years.

There are 245 pages in this book. This book was published 2017 by Pan Macmillan .

Victoria Assanelli loves drawing all things whimsy and dreamlike. She originally trained as a textile designer, but her love of books and drawing led her to pursue illustration. She is from Buenos Aires in Argentina. Kim Ventrella is a children's librarian, and a lover of weird, whimsical stories of all kinds. She lives in Oklahoma City. Skeleton Tree is her debut novel.