Hey there, this is NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Glenn Weldon. We've got a couple

kids picture books for you today, both about the strange kind of comfort that physical objects

can provide. In a minute, we'll hear about Kevin Johnson and Kit Thomas's book about the power

that a piece of red cloth can confer upon a kid in a moment of grief. But first up is author

John Closson's latest,

The Skull. It's a creepy name for a kid's book, sure, but it's not so much scary as weird,

based as it is on an old Austrian folktale about a little girl who runs away from home,

meets a friendly talking skull, and just sort of hangs out with it. Closson talked to

Julie Deppenbrock on Morning Edition.

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Ever since he was a child, John Claussen has been drawn to a certain kind of reading material.

I was a real scurdy cat about most things, especially film and TV and

stuff. I would turn it off pretty quick if it looked like it was about to scare me. But books I always

really felt brave with, especially books that I knew were meant for me. I think that that was a big

...