skull of truth

2. Genre: Fiction/ morality (honesty)/ fantasy, Grades 5-7.

3. Characters: There are a lot of characters who have important roles in the story, but the main character is Charlie Eggleston. Charlie is a young boy who has a problem with telling the truth. His family members are also characters including his mother, father, and uncle. Yorick is the skull that Charlie has speaks to him and a few other characters. Gilbert is a friend of Charlie’s who has cancer. Another character would be Karen who is also a classmate of Charlie’s and a girl he likes.

4. Plot: The story begins with Charlie at a swamp in his town, but the problem is that the swamp might be replaced with an industrial park. Charlie enjoys the swamp, so he is worried about what is going to happen to the swamp. Mark Evans and his buddies show up at the swamp and give Charlie a hard time. Mark Evans is a classmate of Charlie’s and the son of the developer, Harley Evans, who is responsible for the plan to get rid of the swamp. Charlie goes into the swamp to avoid being beaten up by Mark and his buddies. Charlie gets lost in the swamp and stumbles upon a magic shop while he is lost. Charlie goes into the magic shop and notices a lot of bizarre items, but the one that captures his attention is a human skull. The shopkeeper Elives comes out and tells Charlie that the skull is not for sale. When Elives steps in the back again, Charlie feels compelled to steal the skull even though he has never stolen anything before this. Charlie dashes out of the shop with the skull and hides it in the garage of his house.

While Charlie is lying in bed that night, he hears a scratching noise at the window. At the window he sees two rats telling him to let them inside. Charlie is freaked out by talking rats, but he eventually lets them in when he realizes they are from Elives shop. The rats deliver a message to Charlie from Elives telling him that Elives knows he has the skull, and he needs to be careful with it, because it has strong powers. Charlie wanders out to the garage after the rats leave, because he is curious about the skull. He grabs the skull and asks it a question. To his surprise, the eyes of the skull light up and it talks to him. After the initial shock wears off, Charlie learns that the power of the skull is truth telling which presents a problem for Charlie because he frequently lies.

The next morning Charlie goes to school and begins telling the truth no matter the cost. First he tells Mark Evans that his father is a polluter who is killing the environment. This causes Mark to get into a fight with Charlie on the playground. Then his friend Gilbert returns after being gone for a few months, because he was sick with cancer. Gilbert is bald and sickly looking from the chemotherapy treatments. Gilbert asks Charlie how he looks, and Charlie tells him the truth which crushes Gilbert’s feelings. Charlie feels horrible but he can’t help telling the truth. Finally out on the playground, Karen yells at him for what he said to Gilbert, and Charlie blurts out that he loves her. This is the final embarrassing moment of the day for Charlie.

Later that night Charlie goes to the library with his uncle to hear a storyteller. While he is at the library, Gilbert’s mother comes up to Charlie and gives him a letter. When Charlie gets home and reads the letter, he feels worse because Gilbert’s mom explains how hurt Gilbert was from what Charlie said to him at school. Charlie talks to his uncle about the situation with Gilbert, and his uncle helps Charlie to realize that he has to make amends with Gilbert. Charlie complains to the skull about telling the truth, and the skull reveals to him why he has to tell the truth.

The skull tells Charlie that his name used to be Yorick, and he was in search of truth. One day he happened upon an old woman who told Yorick that she would show him truth. She asked Yorick if he thought she was pretty, but Yorick lied and said yes. The old woman cursed him to only be able to tell the truth no matter the circumstances. This ended up costing him many relationships, so he became a court jester for a king whose son was Hamlet. Yorick grew close to the child Hamlet, because he was always entertaining him, but the queen disliked Yorick and his honesty. She had him imprisoned where he eventually died. Later Yorick’s grave was dug up to make room in the cemetery. His skull was sold to Shakespeare who used Yorick’s skull as an inspiration for his stories. Eventually he wound up in the hands of Elives where he has been ever since.

Charlie decides to make it up to Gilbert by shaving his head so Gilbert won’t stick out. Everyone is impressed with Charlie and the classmates follow suit except for Mark Evans. Charlie notices at home that he is not the only one telling the truth. Charlie’s family has a birthday dinner for his grandmother, and everyone begins to tell the truth which begins to hurt the feelings of others. In the end Charlie’s uncle Bennie tells the family that he is gay, which upsets Charlie the most. Eventually Charlie learns to accept the truth about his uncle, but he is tired of the skull and the truth.

In the end Charlie and Karen devise a plan to use the skull to disrupt the town meeting over the debate about the swamp. Charlie takes the skull to the meeting and Mr. Evans reveals the truth about the damages that might be caused from getting rid of the swamp. This revelation makes the townspeople rethink their views on the industrial park. Eventually Charlie and the skull find truth, and Charlie leaves the skull with truth where it belongs.

5. Touchy areas: Overall this is a fairly tame book. The only area of concern is the issue homosexuality. A lot of students and parents are uncomfortable with the topic.

6. Related titles: Nothing but the Truth (1991) by Avi, Ella Enchanted (1998) by Gail Carson.

7. Movies: Liar, Liar (1997), Big Fat Liar (2002), Hamlet (1996).

Music: Liar, Liar (1965) by The Castaways, Would I Lie to You (1985) by The Eurhythmics, Terrible Lie (1989) by Nine Inch Nails.

Photo: Killing Fields Memorial (Phnom, Penh, Cambodia)

Related websites: Information on children and lying (http://www.aacap.org/publications/factsfam/lying.htm), saving wetlands and swamps (http://www.audubonofflorida.org/main/wetlands/chp3.htm).

Art: Liar, Liar by Tustin Ellison.

Poem: The Liars (1919) by Carl Sandburg.

Classic work: Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

8. Evaluation: I thought the book was too easy for most middle school students, but the subject matter was interesting. It had a good story, as well as, teaching a lesson in morality. I rated this one 6 out of 10.

9. Reviewed by: Bob Masters, University of Toledo, adibob@buckeye- express.com.