Review:
Otilla has run away (her reasons for doing so are never stated - she doesn't speak about her past) and is cold and exhausted when she comes across a big abandoned old house. A talking skull agrees to let her in if she'll carry him, since rolling around is difficult. The skull gives her a tour of the place and then, in the evening, admits to her that a headless skeleton comes every night to try to take him and will surely come tonight. Otilla promises to help him, and so she does, very thoroughly.
I love Jon Klassen's artwork. There's something haunting about his characters' eyes. That, plus the skull on the cover, made me want to read this.
This is a very moody, intriguing little story. In keeping with the folktale aspect, we never learn about Otilla's past, how the lord of the house died, and how the skull ended up in such a position (the skull, and presumably the skeleton, were originally the bones of the lord of the house).
In his author's note, Klassen talks about coming across a book with this folktale in it, and how it morphed in his memory to become this book.
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