Horror Children's Literature? Reading "The Girl and Mr. Skull" with My Daughter

A girl hugging a skull on the cover, a dark picture, and the author is the famous Jon Klassen. It makes you wonder, is it a horror novel? Or is it Klassen's usual humorous story? Naturally, I opened it to read, and I couldn't stop until I read the words "The End." The atmosphere is definitely thrilling, full of warm details. This reading experience is very rare and very enjoyable. I immediately brought it home for my children to read. They have always been important book critics in my mind.

The two sisters read together in bed, and like their mother, they finished it in one sitting. Because their ages and personalities are very different, their reading preferences are usually quite different, but this story captivated both of them at the same time, once again verifying children's desire for horror stories. The older sister, who is about to enter adolescence and is starting to enjoy reading young adult novels, said the story was strange but she couldn't help but finish it. She asked a bunch of questions:

Why did Otilla run away?

Why did "Mr. Skull" say not to wear masks, but in the next edition they all wore masks?

How does the "skull" eat?

Were "Skull" and "Skeleton" originally the same person?

.....

The older sister has clearly developed a logical brain capable of judging common sense. These were also questions that I, as a mother, thought about while reading. These question marks not only increased the sense of horror generated by association, such as imagining a child running away, and the backstory of "Mr. Skull" constantly trying to escape his body, but also brought a sense of humor due to various absurdities, such as a pear passing through "Mr. Skull's" mouth and falling to the ground, with "Mr. Skull" still praising its deliciousness. All of this makes the reading experience of "The Girl and the Skull" so special. When you read it, you are also creating your own story. Later, when I read Jon Klassen's explanation of the creative concept behind this book, I saw a passage that roughly meant that every storyteller has their own version in their heart. I seemed to suddenly understand his intention.

My five-year-old sister, who started by saying she was scared, now asks to hear it every night before bed. Her feeling is that she is completely immersed in the story and finds it incredibly fun. She wants to be a YouTuber and yesterday she asked me to record her telling the story. I then realized that my sister, who can't read, had almost memorized every detail in the book.

I don't want to spoil too much, but it's definitely a good story not to be missed.

Also, the friendship in it is super, incredibly great!

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