The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman


In spite of the fact that this year's Newbery Award winner starts with a brutal murder, involves a sinister international brotherhood, has ghouls and ghosts and a poor orphan being raised in a graveyard by the dead, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is a touching coming of age story. I can imagine that the uniqueness of this work can be compared to the uniqueness of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, when it won the Newbery in the 1960's. When a small child escapes the murderer of his family , a man named Jack, in the first chapter of this extraordinary book, he toddles up the hill to an old cemetery, where the inhabitant dead agree to parent and protect him until he can do it for himself. The orphaned child is named Nobody Owens--Nobody, because he is like nobody but himself, and Owens, because a childless couple named Owens who died in the 1700's agrees to be his mom and dad. In addition, a mysterious being known as Silas, agrees to be his guardian. Silas makes sure "Bod" gets fed, educated, and clothed. He also serves as Bod's counselor and protector, a role which is more important than Bod has any idea of. During his childhood, Bod is friends for a short time with a young girl whose parents believe Bod is their daughter's imaginary friend. He also is allowed the run of the graveyard, which gives him the ability to see all the dead, and fade himself when necessary. In early adolescence, he begins to long for the outside world, and wants to avenge his family's murders. While Bod fights the man Jack, Silas and his friends wage an even more intense battle against an evil society on Bod's behalf. A tense and suspense-filled story, The Graveyard Book, surprises with lyrical language and an appealing hero who grows up under the oddest of circumstances. Definitely worth the time. ~Reviewed by Dail Sams