It's a bright and beautiful spring day, and Pearl, a pig, is dawdling on her way home from school. Most unexpectedly, she strikes up an acquaintance with a small bone. "You talk?" says Pearl. "In any language," says the bone. "And I can imitate any sound there is." (Its former owner was a witch.) Pearl and the bone immediately take a liking to each other, and before you know it she is on her way home with the bone in her purse, left open so they can continue their conversation. Won't her parents be surprised when she introduces her talking bone But before that happy moment comes, the resourceful bone must deal with a band of highway robbers in Halloween masks and, worse, a fox who decides that Pearl will be his main course at dinner that night. And deal it does, with gambits droll and thrilling. William Steig, incomparable master of the contemporary picture book, has never been better than in "The Amazing Bone."

威廉·史塔克（William Steig，又译威廉·史代格，1907-2003），1907年出生于纽约。大学教育分别于纽约市立学院及国立设计学院就读。23岁时开始职业漫画家生涯，为New Yorker等杂志设计封面和内页插画。1968年，出版生平第一本儿童图画书，当时很多人都觉得惊讶，但也都分外佩服他61岁“高龄”重新涉足另一个行业的勇气。结果，第二年，他便以《驴小弟变石头》（SYLVESTER AND THE MAGIC PEBBLE)列名号角图书（Horn Book）的佳作榜上。次年，凯迪克奖（Caldecott）也颁给了此书。史塔克在以后的创作中一直用人性化的动物来演绎故事，他和怀特、塞尔登一起为美国儿童文学建立了一个独特的传统。他的作品源源不断，而且纷纷摘下大奖，1983年即以《老鼠牙医——地嗖头》（DOCTOR DE SOTO）得到纽伯瑞佳作奖，他本人也在1988年获得安徒生奖的提名。这位爷爷级的作者于2003年与世长辞，享年95岁，作品有《老鼠牙医——地嗖头》《驴小弟变石头》、《奇奇骨》等约30多本。