Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo: The Road to Epoli

Gr 6 Up—Rickety Stitch is a skeleton minstrel who travels throughout the fantasy realm of Eem with Goo, his jiggling cube of a sidekick. Unlike the other reanimated skeletons in this world, Rickety retains his personality, but he has no memory of who he was when he was alive, and the only key to his past is a song whose fragments come to him in a dream. So in true buddy fashion, the duo venture on an epic quest to find the plucky troubadour's origins. Drawn in stark black-and-white lines with somber gray shading, the dream sequences contrast beautifully with the lurid colors and chaotic art style of the rest of the book. The art brings the story to life, making the characters believable and adding dimension to personalities. The plot is an exciting blend of creepy and humorous, with a truly amazing amount of world-building and history, making the setting every bit as captivating as the characters.