Jon Klassen renders a misremembered folktale unforgettable in ‘The Skull.’

On this week’s Fully Booked podcast, Jon Klassen discusses The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale (Candlewick, July 11), the story of a fast friendship between a girl on the run and a hospitable skull, from the highly decorated Canadian-born author-illustrator of I Want My Hat Back, This Is Not My Hat, and We Found a Hat. In addition to winning a Caldecott medal, Klassen is a two-time Caldecott honoree, and the illustrator of beloved, critically acclaimed titles by Mac Barnett and Lemony Snicket, among others.

“Caldecott medalist Klassen’s signature style is brought to bear on a Tyrolean tale imbued with equal parts comfort and creepiness,” Kirkus writes of The Skull, a brilliant retelling of a classic story. Here’s a bit more from our starred review:

“As the story begins, we meet Otilla, a young tan-skinned girl on the run from her old life, who stumbles upon a large house with a single occupant: a talking skull. The two strike up an immediate friendship, and when the skull confesses that a headless skeleton chases him every night, Otilla is determined to come to his aid. Keen ingenuity on her part protects her new friend, and a happy ending sees the two of them together always…. Employing his customary pitch-perfect tonal gymnastics, only Klassen could inspire readers to want craniums as pals.”

Klassen and host Megan Labrise open with a spirited discussion of how to pronounce Tyrolean. Klassen tells the story of how he encountered “The Skull” in a library book in Juneau, Alaska, then shares his version of the folktale. The pair discuss choosing the right visual details; friendship; what it means to seek asylum; showing care for one’s readers; the nitty-gritty approach to illustrating a 115-page book; what Klassen likes about skulls; and much more.

Then editors Laura Simeon, Mahnaz Dar, Eric Liebetrau, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week.

Editors’ picks:

Those Who Saw the Sun: African American Oral Histories From the Jim Crow South by Jaha Nailah Avery (Levine Querido)

Making More: How Life Begins by Katherine Roy (Norton Young Readers)

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Fat Time: And Other Stories by Jeffery Renard Allen (Graywolf)

Also mentioned on this episode:

By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners by Margaret A. Burnham

Queer Ducks (And Other Animals): The Natural World of AnimalSexuality by Eliot Schrefer, illus. by Jules Zuckerberg

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

White Girls by Hilton Als

Thanks to our sponsors:

Goodfinding: A User’s Guide to EQ and Your Brilliant Mind by William G. DeFoore

A Journey Must Be Taken by H.L. Howard

Right My College Application Essay by Christine Gacharná

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.