Published in 2001 by Joseph Bruchac, Skeleton Man tells the story of Molly, a contemporary young Mohawk girl who awakens one morning to discover that her parents have disappeared. Sent to live with the legendary Skeleton Man, who poses as her great-uncle, Molly uses her wits, ingenuity, and strength to free herself and her parents from the gruesome and evil creature. Bruchac bases the novel on a folk tale that he attributes to the Mohawk people.

Bruchac has written over 120 books for children focusing on Indigenous American traditions and culture and has won many awards for his writing. Although he self-reports having Abenaki heritage, he also draws on other Indigenous American cultures for his material, such as the Iroquois, Navajo, and Cherokee Nations. In Skeleton Man, Bruchac thematically addresses the importance of cultural heritage and traditional wisdom and emphasizes the intuitive impact of dreams. Other works by this author include Code Talker, Two Roads, and Rez Dogs.

This guide refers to the 2003 Harper Trophy paperback edition.

Plot Summary

Molly, a sixth-grade Mohawk girl, begins the novel by relating the Indigenous legend of the Skeleton Man. In that folktale, the Skeleton Man eats all the members of his family, except for his niece. The niece demonstrates great courage, intelligence, and physical fortitude by outwitting and defeating the Skeleton Man. As the novel progresses, the events of Molly’s life come to eerily resemble the legend. One Sunday, she awakens to find her parents missing. She cannot understand where her parents have gone but remains confident that they will return.

On Monday, Molly tells her parents’ employers that her parents are sick and composes a computer message excusing herself from school. However, when she returns to school on Tuesday, her teacher, Ms. Shabbas, senses that Molly has a problem. The next day, Social Service representatives and police come to Molly’s home and take her away, giving her to a creepy old man who claims to be her great-uncle. Molly does not want to go with him because she believes that she must be at home when her parents return. She also believes that the man posing as her great-uncle resembles the Skeleton Man of legend.

In her so-called great-uncle’s house, Molly is both frightened and desperately unhappy. Every night, she hears the old man climb the stairs to her bedroom and lock her door. When she sleeps, Molly has a series of “aware dreams.” Her father has taught her that in an aware dream, the sleeper knows that they are dreaming and that the dream will contain an important message for them. In Molly’s dream, she meets a talking rabbit who tells her that her parents are buried but not dead. Throughout the rest of the novel, the rabbit gives her vital messages in her dreams.

She rarely sees her great-uncle during the day but finds notes telling her that there is food in the refrigerator for her. After eating the first plate of food, she feels woozy and sleepy, as if he has drugged her food. From then on, she resolves not to eat any of the meals that he has left for her. She hides the food in her backpack and throws it away after leaving the house. The old man wants her to grow fat, and Molly is convinced that he wants to eat her.

When Molly reveals to Ms. Shabbas that her great-uncle locks her in at night, Ms. Shabbas takes her to the school counselor, Mrs. Rudder, who rudely dismisses Molly and her fears. When Ms. Shabbas insists that Molly be taken seriously, Mrs. Rudder calls Social Services. When Mrs. Rudder and Mr. Wintergreen, the Social Services representative, visit the old man’s house, Molly’s great-uncle acts normally, giving the officials more reasons to discount Molly’s anxiety. Molly now knows that if she is to save herself and her parents, she is on her own.

One day, when she returns home from school, she finds the door to the old man’s computer room open. She enters and is horrified to see images on the computer from secret cameras placed around the house. She runs to her room, calms herself, and sends a plea to the universe, asking her dreams for help. That night, she dreams that her great-uncle (who has morphed into the mythological Skeleton Man) is chasing her. In the dream, the rabbit shows her where to run; they arrive at a waterfall where she must cross the water on a slippery log while Skeleton Man closes in on her from behind. Reaching the opposite bank, she dislodges the makeshift bridge while Skeleton Man crosses, and he falls to his death. This dream is prophetic and reveals to Molly what she must face in waking life.

The next day, Molly sees men working in the school library. At the end of the day, they leave their tools behind. Acting on a hunch, Molly takes some of the tools and hides them in her backpack. After returning to her great-uncle’s house, she sneaks into the computer room and finds photos of her mother and father, who are tied up in the toolshed outside her great-uncle’s house. She also finds banking records. Scooping them all up, she now has hard evidence of her great-uncle’s duplicity. A plan to rescue her family unfolds.

That night, after her great-uncle locks her in her room, she removes the bedroom door from its hinges with the tools she took from the school workmen. She races to find her parents in the tool shed. Her mother and father are in a hole in the ground at the back of the shed, and their prison resembles the cave from her dream. She uses bolt cutters from her backpack to cut through the grate covering the hole. When her father tells her to run away quickly, she tells him to meet her at a waterfall known to them both.

Events happen just as they did in her dream. A rabbit runs in front of her and leads the way as her great-uncle, now fully revealed as Skeleton Man, chases her. She finds the strength to dislodge the log bridge just has she did in the dream, and Skeleton Man plummets to his death in the waterfall and the gorge far below, although no one ever finds his body. By this time, Molly parents have freed themselves, and they meet her at the waterfall. Later, while reflecting on the experience, Molly knows that she will never understand why it happened. She is just grateful that her family is restored, and she is happy to be with them. That is all that matters.