The Skull
Written and Illustrated by Jon Klassen
Candlewick, 2023
All Ages
This gothic masterpiece by Jon Klaasen (of Who Took My Hat fame,) is simplistic, rustic, folk art. Its earthy colors provoke the atmosphere of a European fairy tale (which in fact, it is an adaptation of).
Otilla runs away. We don’t know exactly why. We don’t need to. It is sufficient to know that it drove her from her home into The Black Forest during a hard Austrian snowstorm. Klassen’s signature artwork takes us, often wordlessly, through the silent, snowy, isolated woods to an abandoned castle. There is no handsome beast waiting in the wings, just a lonely skull sitting in a room high in a tower above endlessly stretching cold, empty rooms. But each night a skeleton comes. It wants the skull. Will it enslave the skull’s immortal soul to wander as its own head for eternity? What black magic can a little girl conjure to protect her friend? Is the skull really Otilla’s friend? With Jon Klassen, do not expect a cute ending where it turns out to be the skull’s own body and they are merrily reunited.
The short work has characterization, conflict and suspense, danger and the supernatural. It evokes the cautionary tales of childhood that actually scared you. It reminds me of “The Smoker”, a short Iroquois folk tale from Alan Garner‘s 1969 anthology A Cavalcade of Goblins. It has similar chills to the stories we told at scout camp, fireside tales about body parts dropping down the chimney one at a time, only Klassen is never graphic. The Skull evokes its horror all from the deep and primal fears of your own mind, the imagined shadows, the ghostly possibilities of a haunted castle in the forever woods.
Though I scored a digital copy for my reviews here, I don’t see how anyone could resist actually owning a paper copy of this grim piece of coffee table art. Talk about a conversation piece!
