Twelve-year-old Kallie despises nonsense. She believes there's a rational explanation for everything, despite the good-natured prodding of her Grandpa Jess, who takes her to frivolous wastes of time like their town's local Festival of Fools.
There, Kallie meets a faceless man (must be some kind of mask) who gives her a strange wooden puzzle box (must be some kind of gimmick). Intrigued despite herself, Kallie sets to work on unlocking its secrets and...lets something out. From here Kallie's life begins to entangle with another world, a world where Liah, a young bone carver, journeys with her master to sell wares to a wicked Queen.
The sights, sounds, smells, and spells of Liah's world are beginning to leak into Kallie's, and if Kallie can't decipher the meaning of her own story, "the end" might be far from happy.

” A Box of Bones” is a an imaginative and unique middle grade fantasy that both boys and girls would enjoy.

Kallie, the young protagonist,  and a practical sort at that, is convinced by her Grandpa Jess to go to the “Festival of Fools.”  There she meets a faceless man who gives her  a mysterious “puzzle box.   Kallie sets about unlocking its secrets , and with tenacity unlocks the box only to find that something has been freed.  At the same time, a young bone cutter, Liah,  travels  with her master,to sell her products to a wicked Empress.  At this point, some of Liah’s world begins to leak into Kallie’s world.  Kallie tries her hardest to decipher the connection between the two worlds. If Kallie is unable to decipher the meaning of her own world, the ending may not be happy!

Reviewed by Connie M. Smith, Breakwater School, Portland, ME