The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Winner of 2009 Newbery Medal
I just picked this up at the library yesterday and the cover drew me in right away. Even the title is mysterious and alluring. Anyway, I liked the reading of this story more than I actually like the plot, not that that’s a bad thing, but I found myself wishing for a little more information towards the end of the book. I think it’s partly because it’s meant for younger audiences than myself!
Before I get ahead of myself though…a summary. The book begins as three members of a family are murdered (not graphically, but maybe a little too disturbing to read to my six year old). The murderer heads to the last family members bedroom, a toddler and finds that the baby has disappeared. The murderer follows the baby’s scent to a nearby graveyard where ghosts help protect him and eventually become his family. They name him Nobody, Bod for short, and teach give him the Freedom of the Graveyard which allows him to see and visit with all of the ghosts and learn some graveyard tricks.
The rest of the story is kind of meandering as it tells the tale of Bod’s childhood, but Gaiman is such a good storyteller that the road is actually much more interesting than the destination. Of course, throughout the story, the murderer still looks for Bod and periodically appears, but it’s not until the climax that Bod must face him. Along the way he has many adventures and learns many lessons that aren’t necessarily related to the ending but they are so captivating that as the reader, I didn’t really care. This was a quick, enjoyable read with a little bit of magic and a little bit of intrigue and I loved it!
On a side note, I’ve decided I really need to come up with some kind of a rating system for the books I read because “I liked it” or “I didn’t like it” just aren’t cutting it for me anymore. I think for now I’ll just give each book a rating out of 10 until I can come up with something a little more creative. So for this one, I give it an 8/10, maybe even an 8.5…
Other Reviews:
- 1 more chapter
- Stainless Steel Droppings
- Things Mean A lot
- Bart’s Bookshelf
- The Novel World
- Worducopia
- Becky’s Book Reviews
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