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·史塔剋（William Steig，又譯威廉·史代格，1907-2003），1907年齣生於紐約。大學教育分彆於紐約市立學院及國立設計學院就讀。23歲時開始職業漫畫傢生涯，為New Yorker等雜誌設計封麵和內頁插畫。1968年，齣版生平第一本兒童圖畫書，當時很多人都覺得驚訝，但也都分外佩服他61歲“高齡”重新涉足另一個行業的勇氣。結果，第二年，他便以《驢小弟變石頭》（SYLVESTER AND THE MAGIC PEBBLE)列名號角圖書（Horn Book）的佳作榜上。次年，凱迪剋奬（Caldecott）也頒給瞭此書。史塔剋在以後的創作中一直用人性化的動物來演繹故事，他和懷特、塞爾登一起為美國兒童文學建立瞭一個獨特的傳統。他的作品源源不斷，而且紛紛摘下大奬，1983年即以《老鼠牙醫——地嗖頭》（DOCTOR DE SOTO）得到紐伯瑞佳作奬，他本人也在1988年獲得安徒生奬的提名。這位爺爺級的作者於2003年與世長辭，享年95歲，作品有《老鼠牙醫——地嗖頭》《驢小弟變石頭》、《奇奇骨》等約30多本。