The Amazing Bone is a 1976 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year, a 1977 Caldecott Honor Book, and a 1977 Boston Globe - Horn Book Awards Honor Book for Picture Books.

 

William Steig, incomparable master of the contemporary picture book, has never been better than in The Amazing Bone.

 

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.

 

凱迪克獎（The Caldecott Medal），是由美國圖書館協會所頒發的兒童繪本大獎。1938年創立。
 

獎項的目的在於獎勵前一年度出版的「給兒童的美國最傑出繪本」，選出一個金牌獎及數個榮譽（銀牌）獎，榮譽獎的數量通常為二至五個。

 

要獲得凱迪克獎的參選資格，作品必須先以英語在美國出版，且擔任插圖繪製的插畫家須為美國公民或居民。
 

評審團在評選書籍時，是以在兒童理解力為前提下，圖畫是否能完整表達出故事的主題或概念為考量重點，但書籍其他部分（文本、裝禎設計等）也會列入考慮，無需考慮該書的教育及通俗性。