The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Graveyard Book
Book Review: A Joy To Read
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been a fan of Neil's for ages, but not of his novels. I have never felt strongly about them, their structure or conclusions, preferring his Sandman comics and short stories. Having read The Graveyard Book, I can no longer say that.
Nobody Owens is firmly in place within the pantheon of imaginary figures in my head, and I feel lucky to have had the chance to watch him grow up and follow his adventures.
This book is easily my favorite novel directed at younger readers since the high points of the Harry Potter series, and I think it is even better than a portion of Rowling's work.
It works in almost every way - the one down point being some dependence on an under-defined 'prophesy' at a critical juncture (a little cringeworthy).
I'm also happy with the ending - which closed some doors in ways that readers deserve, as they reflect life better than the schmotlz we are often fed.
I can hardly wait to read it to my child - we'll play in Oz and Wonderland territory for a while first, though - as the dance macabre seems better suited for grade school kids and up.
Book Review: A Little Dark For a Children's Book, But a Really Good Read!
Summary: 4 Stars
I somehow was locked in a closet and had never even heard of this book before it won the Newbery. So yes, I hopped on the Newbery Band-wagon and checked it out from the library.
I was going to read it with my 7 year-old originally, but when I skimmed the first chapter and we open with the murder of an entire family, excluding a toddler who wanders into a graveyard, I decided this one would be a solo read. The grade level is list as 5th and up. I think that is pretty appropriate, not based on reading level, but subject matter. I was thinking about what genre this would fall into and decided the it needs to be something like "children's horror". I wasn't aware that "paranormal romance" was a genre, so children's horror, or thriller would be where this fits in.
I'm split on this book. There were parts I REALLY liked and parts that were....lackluster. I can't think of a better word. I'm glad my husband was here, I knew quickly the author was british by some of the words in the book, i.e., anarak, oh and some cockney rhyming slang, but I can't remember what it was, it was something like "up the apples and pears" (stairs) or "the trouble and strife" (wife). I'd love to go back and find it, but I am getting sleepy and my book is due back tomorrow.
I did have to look up a word, which seems uncommon when reading a children's book that was written in 2008. I did not know what apoplexy (the cause of the demise of Thackeray Porringer in 1734) was, until I looked it up. My husband didn't know what it meant until we looked it up either, which made me feel less dumb!
I wasn't a huge fan of the illustrations either. I did notice however, if you look at the cover, the negative image of the headstone, in the blue is a boy's face. I would be interested to see what the inside illustrations by Chris Riddell look like in the UK version as Gaiman himself states in his authors note that they, "both drew wonderfully and differently." I've seen the cover, but not inside the book.
I didn't think of the comparison to Kipling's The Jungle Book until I read the authors note. The Jungle Book wasn't quite as dark as this. After all, fuzzy animals vs. ghosts and spirits....a bit different.
I would recommend this 2009 Newberry Medal winner, with caution. Some children may not be ready for the dark and sometimes quite scary themes. I ended up with the 4/5 rating because I felt the good outweighed the bad.
~Jenn
Topics: death, murder, ghosts, witches, ghouls, werewolves, bullying, hauntings, graveyards, scary situations
Main Characters: Nobody (Bod) Owens, Mr. Owens, Mrs. Owens, Silas, Mrs. Lupescu, Scarlett, The Jacks of All Trades
Setting: a graveyard in modern day England
Theme: After the murder of his parents and sister by the man Jack, a toddler escapes to a graveyard where he is adopted by ghost parents and given the name Nobody Owens. Bod stuggles to find out where he fits in, in the spirit world or in the human world. With the man Jack still on the loose, Silas, his guardian, and his group of ghostly friends do everything they can to protect him.
Book Review: A Macabre Delight
Summary: 5 Stars
I became curious about The Graveyard Book when I first read about the plot. The notion of a boy reared by ghosts made me wonder how the story would be developed and I must say that Neil Gaiman created as memorable a story as I could have hoped.
Not to spoil the novel for those who have not read it, the story is about a boy whose family is killed by a professional hit man but the toddler of the house (an inventive little boy) has escaped him and gone wandering outside, ending up at a graveyard. The ghosts take charge of him and the story follows Bod Owens as he grows up with his unusual parents and guardian. Mr. Gaiman enlivens his tale by giving us some unusual creatures, such as ghouls and strange winged Night-gaunts. There is the unforgettable chapter where Bod encounters the witch Lisa Hempstock and his efforts to get her a headstone. Best of all, he makes the graveyard and its permanent residents into a real place with complicated and interesting characters. Mr. Gaiman is a great observer and nicely contrasts the worlds of the living and the dead.
The book has a wonderful cadence and flow with marvelous descriptions. A brief example:
"One grave in every graveyard belongs to the ghouls. Wander any graveyard long enough and you will find it - waterstained and bulging, with cracks or broken stone, scraggly grass or rank weeds about it, and a feeling when you reach it, of abandonment. It may be colder that the other gravestones, too, and the name on the stone is all too often impossible to read. If there is a statue on the grave it will be headless or so scabbed with fungus and lichens as to look like a fungus itself."
I looked forward to spending some quiet time reading The Graveyard Book each day, and I agree with the comment by Laurell K. Hamilton (on the jacket) that the reader is left wanting for more. This is probably not a book for young children but readers from intermediate on up will find it a rewarding read.
Book Review: A Nod to Bod
Summary: 5 Stars
While my kids were browsing in the children's section of our local bookstore, I picked up this book and began to read it. Wow! I hadn't planned on purchasing myself a children's book, but I was immediately sucked into this one and had to bring it home. This novel will likely be too much for some children. It begins with a heinous trauma, the vicious knife slaying of the protagonist's family. The crime is not related in gory detail, but the horror of the event is nonetheless evident. One member of the family, a toddler baby who is blissfully unaware of the carnage, survives because he is a night wanderer and has climbed out of his crib and toddled off into an old cemetery up the road from his house. There, he is taken in by the cemetery denizens after an appearance by the confused "new" ghosts of his parents, particularly his distraught mother, who lets the resident ghosts of the cemetery know that the child is being hunted by Jack, the murderer of his family. The baby is renamed Nobody Owens, called Bod for short, and the rest of the novel tells of his coming of age and eventual revenge on his family's killer.
Bod learns many lessons from the ghosts in the cemetery; from his guardian, Silas (a vampire?); from Miss Lupescu, a werewolf; and from living people, most notably Scarlett, a girl of his age who befriends him when he is about 5 and then again in his early teens. When Bod demonstrates that he has learned enough and matured enough to fend for himself outside the cemetery, he must leave it, and this leaving will be permanent. I found this part very saddening, and I imagine that some young readers will be upset by it.
The premise of this novel is based on Kipling's The Jungle Book, which is updated in a wonderfully creepy way here. Bod is an interesting character, and the ghosts and other creatures he meets are compelling. I highly recommend this memorable novel to adults and children who are mature enough not to get bad dreams from it. Long live Bod!
Book Review: A Rare 5-Star Review
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't often give 5 star reviews (don't want to dilute the rating, ha ha). But this novel is near-perfect.
Gaiman creates a magical tale of a boy raised in a graveyard by kindly ghosts. Bod (short for Nobody) is the only survivor after his family was murdered when he was just a baby.
Taken in by a wonderful cast of spooks at the local graveyard determined to protect him, he grows up learning lessons that only the underworld can teach him, while the murderers who killed his family relentlessly pursue Bod to finish off the job.
This one was filled with uncanny observations on the human condition and characters you will fall in love with.
A perfect Halloween read, by the way!