This was charming and magical. I was very surprised that everyone Prunella met was so kind-hearted and friendly. A real subversion for monster stories. ( )

Prunella's village has a demagogue who is exhorting the humans to build a second wall atop their existing wall to keep out the surrounding monsters. So, yeah, bad time for Prunella to inadvertently put on a cursed ring that changes her to an animated skeleton.

Banished to live with the other monsters of the island, she soon finds out there may be someone on a distant mountain who may have a solution to removing the cursed ring, so it's quest time! Prunella meets, challenges, befriends and learns about monsters on her journey to finding the way back to where she belongs.

A rollicking, fun and friendly adventure that makes me immediately want another Prunella book. ( )

This book was so much fun. Prunella is a little girl who likes to garden, and while doing so she finds a special ring. Upon putting this ring on her finger, she goes from human to skeleton and becomes a monster. She gets kicked out of town, other monsters, and realizes that monsters are nothing more than other creatures. Most are good and willing to be your friend if you were willing to be friendly in return. This book was simply lovely. Between the message of acceptance and being pure at heart, to the fantastic and fun illustrations, this book was a joy to read from beginning to end. I want to see more adventures from prunella. ( )

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Netgalley.)

Young Prunella lives with her mom in a small village. Though they're on an island teeming with natural beauty, sentient creatures, and magic, you wouldn't know it - Prunella's community is walled off from the forest, the mountains, and the beaches. And there's a rumble to build the wall even higher, as fears of monster attacks spread throughout the town.

In the midst of this panic, Prunella find a mysterious ring while tending to her backyard garden. When she puts in on, she's transformed into a skeleton. Horrified, her fellow citizens mistake her for a "real" monster and promptly banish her from the village.

And so Prunella goes on a quest to break the curse of the skull ring. Along the way, she gets to know the "monsters" with whom she shares the island - skeletons, dragons, giants, stone megaliths, wisps, even the great cat sphinx who guards the island and its inhabitants - and discovers that they possess more humanity than the humans in her village.

PRUNELLA AND THE CURSED SKULL RING is an absolutely adorable and compassionate story, perfect for readers of all ages. The narrative has some pretty obvious real world parallels (all the "build this wall" talk gave me flashbacks to 2016!), making it an excellent way to introduce young readers to concepts like othering, prejudice, and the like. The artwork is charming AF, from the giant proudly introducing Prunella and Captain Rip Skeleton to their miniature home, to Prunella's entry into Cedarton. I wondered - not with a little apprehension - how Loux would wrap up the story, and the ending does not disappoint (a little bit snarky, with nary a whiff of eye-rollingly unrealistic optimism). ( )