Yorick and Bones: Friends by Any Other Name

By Jeremy Tankard and Hermione Tankard

 Hey-ho, hey-ho! Father-daughter duo Jeremy and Hermione Tankard are thrilled to deliver the second book in a heartfelt, “humerus” full-color graphic novel series perfect for fans of Bird & Squirrel!

Yorick and his trusty canine companion Bones hath returned, and they are cordially invited to a costume party!

But when Yorick arrives and meets a new friend, he isn’t sure whether she likes the real him or just who he is in disguise.

Do clothes really make the skeleton? Can Yorick ever be the same fun-loving jester he once was, if it means pretending to be something he’s not?

Yorick will need help from some friendly faces to get to the bottom of these big questions. But will the answers make for a comedy or a tragedy?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: May 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9780062854353

Jeremy Tankard

Jeremy Tankard is the bestselling authorstrator of the Grumpy Bird picture books. He has always loved comics and planned to make a career of them when he was about nine years old. He discovered the joys of Shakespeare in high school when his drama teacher cast him in a production of The Tempest. He has loved all things Shakespeare ever since. His book Yorick and Bones sees these two interests collide in the most unexpected ways. He lives in Vancouver with his wife and two children.

Book preview

Reviews for Yorick and Bones

[sweetiegherkin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A Shakespearean-era skeleton is unearthed by an active dog and seems to have no sense that time has passed -- or that he is dead. This is meant to be a humorous tale and it certainly has its moments. I was entertained enough for this title but not as much as I wanted to be and not enough to continue with the series. The rambunctious dog nicknamed Bones is quite adorable. Yorick's cluelessness to his skeletal situation requires more suspension of disbelief than I could quite muster up on reading it.I do think it's sweet that the book is the creation of a father-child duo and I am impressed by the teen's commitment to using Shakespearean language. I wonder, however, if a lot of that will just go over the heads of the target audience of relatively young children.

[jothebookgirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When I first began reading this book, I thought it a bit weird, but by the end I was in love. This tale is a charming spoof for younger readers based on a Shakespeare work. The father-daughter team of Jeremy and Hermione Tankard based the book on a doodle (the afterword is a must read explaining this), of a dog threatening to gobble the leg bones of an upset skeleton he just unearthed. This is something Jeremy had been drawing, in one form or another, since he was 7 years old. After years of trying and failing to get the sketches to work as a picture book, Jeremy passed the manuscript off to his daughter, 15 at the time, who rewrote it in Shakespearean verse and produced the script for what would become this fun, endearing graphic novel. “Poor Yorick” wants just two things: a sausage and a friend to share it with. He easily gets a hot dog from a hot dog vendor’s cart but the friendship part is hard to find. Yorick is quite innocent, oblivious and goofy as he and Bones search for a human to play with. Wearing a pair of red pants to cover his nakedness, Yorick doesn’t understand that he is the terrifying talking skeleton from whom everyone is running. When he finally sees his reflection, he utters a variation of Shylock’s famous line from “The Merchant of Venice,” deftly changed to suit his “sorry bones”: “’Tis sure that if you prick me, I’ll bleed not. I think young readers will enjoy the rhythm which is kind of like like a heart that pumps “ba DUM” five times a line. Yorick’s words may sound foreign, but “forsooth” and “alack” are the hardest ones you’ll find. In the final act, when Yorick realizes the friend for whom he’s been looking ever since he was unearthed, is the dog who’s been nipping at his heels all along, his exclamation, “Verily, the air doth cool mine face!” shouted as he throws his own skull for his new pal to fetch.This one is a winner through the precious story and terribly cute illustrations.

[villemezbrown · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Yorick, the lamented skull in Shakespeare's Hamlet, is dug from the ground in the present day by a passing dog and walks around scaring people with his iambic pentameter and skeletal form. Did we need a kid's book scripted entirely in iambic pentameter? Wasn't it bad enough when we had to read Stan Lee's original Thor comic book where he doths, haths, and -eths everything?Morality police: Yorick steals without consequence.Quibble police: The author says he decided that Yorick and Hamlet were childhood friends because Shakespeare "doesn't make it clear whether Yorick is a grown-up or not." This despite Hamlet referring to Yorick as a "man," who "hath borne me on his back a thousand times" until his death 23 years previous to the graveyard scene, when a 30-year-old Hamlet would have been seven (or even younger if you care to dispute Hamlet's age). Yorick was the king's court jester, so it seems highly unlikely he was a child peer of Hamlet's.