- we spent almost a year reading all nine books in the bone series plus bone tall tales. was it worth it?
- yes. because they are the best comic books i've ever read in my whole life.
- i'll split your favourite parts into categories. what was the funniest scene?
- when lucius and phoney bone have a bet about who can run the tavern the best and phoney advertized by calling himself the dragonslayer.
- what was the most intense part?
- the final scenes of treasure hunters when thorn and fone bone are trapped in the dungeon. also when mermie frightens the armies with visions. then in the first book when we see grandma ben fighting the rat creatures as they are clawing her and biting her head. another intense scene was when rock jaw had them trapped in the cave.
- anything that made you angry?
- not really.
- let's talk characters. who was your overall favourite?
- smiley because he was really funny. phoney because he was really angry. and fone bone because he always knew everything was going to be okay.
- do you have a special place in your heart for any minor characters?
- roderick the racoon and the baby possums. and bartleby. they are just all really cute and great.
- you wanted to tell me about characters you hated.
- phoney bone, lord tarsil and the venu, queen mim (the locust) and of course briar.
- wait a second. you just told me that phoney was one of your favourites. AND you hated him?
- he is also kind of troublesome. all he cares about is treasure. and he didn't help at all, with anything. ever. and then there was that time he stole gramma ben's bloomers and nailed them to the side of the barn to make it warmer. [laughing] can we tell people what bloomers are? giant UNDERPANTS! ha!!
- what do you feel about kingdok? for me, briar is more purely evil, but i can't say that about him. . .
- i think kingdok was just poorly taken care of by briar. he trusted her and he shouldn't have.
- why would kingdok rather die than help thorn?
- he just wanted to because he was so hurt he didn't want to live anymore. it was just too hard.
- how well did jeff smith balance serious and funny?
- i think he should have done a little more funny. but it was really just one pebble more on the serious side of the scale. i think he did the best job with tall tales, especially when tyson vomited all the heroes and big johnson bone kept calling mr pip mr plop.
- you love the funny parts. tell me more.
- when the possums called the two stupid rat creatures "quiche munching old ladies". soleil loves that. also when the winter comes suddenly in the very beginning and at the very end. and when phoney realizes that smiley took all the treasure out and replaced it with stale bread thingies.
- speaking of the very end, did fone bone make the right decision?
- his decision was completely wrong. he should have stayed with thorn. and they probably never came back to visit because they don't know how.
- the "quest for the spark" books take place in the same world. are you interested in going back?
- YES! we need to request them from the library.
- write some ad copy for me - sell these books to the world:
- this amazing adventure will blow your head off! i don't mean literally, but when you read these your heart will start pumping. this is serious folks, the funny parts are very funny, the sad parts are very sad - all this ten times as much as it would normally be.
