Kassner's haunting debut will leave a quiet yet lasting impression on readers. Evoking the dreamy tone and themes of Neil Gaiman's Coraline (2002) and The Graveyard Book (2008), the novel introduces Irréelle, a young girl who collects bone dust for her cold, cutthroat guardian and creator, Miss Vesper. Irréelle longs to be a real girl instead of one of Miss Vesper's gossamer constructions. When she accidentally destroys one of Miss Vesper's new creations, Irréelle retreats to the very place from where she extracts bone dust: the catacombs beneath the cemetery. Once there, she meets Guy, a boy who, like her, was created and then rejected by Miss Vesper. The two embark on a quest to discover where Miss Vesper gets her magic and to find how they can use it to become real. With a timeless feel, Irréelle's story broaches the subjects of loss and forgiveness with a deft touch. This is an impressive new fairy tale that will appeal to fans of Lisa Graff's subtly magical stories.

A girl conjured from bone dust longs to be real—and loved—in Kassner's debut.Eleven-year-old Irréelle doesn't believe in ghosts, though she spends her days beneath a cemetery—the titular "bone garden"—extracting bone dust for her sinister creator, Miss Vesper. But she is haunted. Miss Vesper constantly criticizes Irréelle's "mismatched" and "muddled" white hair, multicolored eyes, and crooked limbs; worse, she reminds Irréelle that she's "a figment of [her] imagination, tethered here by the finest thread." Terrified of being wished away, Irréelle vows to complete an "impossible" task in hopes that Miss Vesper will make her "normal" and "fully real. Maybe then she would be worthy of love." As Irréelle and her somewhat one-dimensional fellow creations—wisecracking Guy, fearless Lass, and the mischievous, disembodied Hand—search for "the unmarked grave that is very clearly marked" while dodging Miss Vesper's wrath, Irréelle learns that being "real" takes many forms. Many predicaments resolve with remarkable ease, diminishing suspense. However, the author perceptively depicts the confusion of living with an emotionally abusive caregiver; Irréelle's love for Miss Vesper despite her cruelty is painfully realistic. The ending feels a bit too tidy, but Irréelle's newfound self-confidence is rewarding. Saunders' dark, scratchy line drawings accent the lyrical prose. Miss Vesper and Irréelle present white; the Hand appears dark-skinned, Guy is racially ambiguous, and Lass appears to be a person of color.A mildly creepy, ultimately comforting take on familiar themes of love, family, and identity. (Fantasy. 8-12)

Gr 4-7 -Iréelle is stranded between real and not-real, alive and not existing. She was made from bone dust by the mysterious Miss Vesper, who threatens to imagine her away anytime Iréelle displeases her. Iréelle is too slow when gathering bone dust from the graveyard for Miss Vesper's new creations; her crooked limbs make her awkward, and her temperamentdesperate to pleaseonly encourages her harsh creator. When Iréelle runs away into the graveyard, she meets a boy like her, who tries to help her escape. This title could have filled the gap left by Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book , but it fails to capture the same haunted magic and atmosphere that one expects from a story set in a graveyard. Iréelle's behavior is indicative of an abuse victim, which feels discordant with the rest of the story. When she finds her inner strength, the shift is abrupt, to the point where the reader feels it could have happened much sooner, or, realistically, would never have happened at all. Her friends feel like bit players despite the small cast of characters, and the villain fails to be truly evil or stir the reader's sympathy with her backstory. Saunders's black-and-white illustrations, reminiscent of wood carvings, are suitably spooky and provide a sense of mystery that the story lacks. VERDICT Lovers of scary stories may enjoy the book simply for the setting and all the bones, but most readers will finish the book unsatisfied.-Kristin Brynsvold, Tuckahoe Elementary School, Arlington, VA