Bone by Bone

David is nine. He knows all the bones of the human body. When he was born, his father hung a skeleton in his room and taught him the names, bone by bone by bone. David is going to be a doctor like his father.

David's best friend is Malcolm. He knows the bone names too.

But this is Tennessee in the 1950s—the deep South of America, and a time of brutal racial intolerance and tension. It's the territory of the secret society of white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan--and Malcolm is black.

Drawing on her own childhood memories, Tony Johnston, one of America's most revered writers, brings us a universal story of the innocent purity of friendship amidst the bone-chilling horror of racism.

Praise for Bone by Bone:

'Johnston refuses to sacrifice the humanity of any of her characters in this explosive tale.'

Publishers Weekly

'A fierce little gem of storytelling.'

LA Times