Neil Gaiman’s perennial favorite, The Graveyard Book, has sold more than one million copies and is the only novel to win both the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal. Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place—he’s the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians’ … antiquated customs of his guardians’ time as well as their ghostly teachings—such as the ability to Fade so mere mortals cannot see him.
Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead?
The Graveyard Book is the winner of the Newbery Medal, the Carnegie Medal, the Hugo Award for best novel, the Locus Award for Young Adult novel, the American Bookseller Association’s “Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book,” a Horn Book Honor, and Audio Book of the Year. Don’t miss this modern classic—whether shared as a read-aloud or read independently, it’s sure to appeal to readers ages 8 and up.
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Another crazy fantasy story from Neil Gaiman – have to say it’s my favorite so far – loved it! From the first chapter, he grabs you with a murder that goes wrong… a child escapes, and makes its way to a nearby graveyard where he is “adopted” by the residents there. Fun and danger await him on both sides of the graveyard gate, and as he grows, he learns how to navigate them from his friends and guardians who include a vampire, werewolf, witch, and plenty of ghosts. Totally original, very creative, and just an overall fun read.
This was my first Neil Gaiman book.
What Neil Gaiman creates is not just prose, it’s magic. There’s magic in every word, and it flows effortlessly and marvels easily. This is a children’s book, and that didn’t stop me for reading it, for it made me a child once again.
The beginning and end of this charming little story deserve five stars. I was immediately intrigued, and the bittersweet end wrapped things up nicely.
Unfortunately, some parts of the middle were barely three-star worthy. None of them were poorly written (this is Neil Gaiman we’re talking about), but they seemed a little pointless to the overall story, more like short stories about this quirky kid named Bod that got tossed into the book. It was also confusing at times trying to guess how old Bod was supposed to be.
Still, if you liked The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Coraline, you should enjoy this. And if you can get the audiobook version, go for it! It’s read by Gaiman himself.
This book was captivating, to say the least. With a character named Nobody Owens, you can’t go wrong. You can feel the character’s presence from start to finish. You grow as he grows. You are one hundred percent involved in the entire journey, which makes the story come alive even more. It’s a breathtaking read. A book that makes you want to be a child again and believe in that thing called ‘magic’.
There is good reason this book won both the Newbery Medal. By the author’s note in the back of my 10th anniversary edition, it took him about twenty years to write, for it to be the right TIME for him to write it, and the waiting was absolutely worth it. Beautiful, fun, thrilling, great for kids and adults. What a perfect family reading book, especially around Halloween.
I was 56 when I finally read this book on my TBR list since it came out. Again, well worth the wait!
It reminded me of how ‘homey’ a graveyard can be if it is well guarded. It’s good to imagine them all taking care of each other. The old ones are charming and need to be upkept because they hold so much history and they are part of us. This book was a wonderful tale revolving around one and a boy attached to it.
Neil Gaiman never fails me. He’s probably my favorite story-teller out there and every time I read one of his books, I’m reminded of why. His way of taking terrible things and making them wonderful is such a magical skill.
I truly don’t know what to say except I LOVED IT! And go read this if you haven’t already.
Neil Gaiman has won dozens of awards for this amazing children’s book that will keep adults hanging on every word.
The premise is a mindbender: an infant escapes the murderous fate of his entire family by The Man Jack and ends up adopted by ghosts in the nearby cemetery.
Bod, of course, will grow and change since he is not dead. And he will have to deal with the murderer. Gaiman’s lyrical language leads the reader deeper into Bod’s awakening awareness that he is alive and wants to stay alive. This is an unforgettable book.
I’m a fan of Neil Gaiman’s children’s books, as they’re creepy and macabre and intriguing but not too over the top. Just enough to engross kids looking for something a little scary, but not enough to drive nightmares.
A retelling of the Jungle Book, but in with Gaiman’s typical twist where the baby is raised by ghosts in a cemetery. It’s a wonderful coming of age story as Bod grows and learns about the world, and eventually solves the mystery of his parents’ murder. I can’t wait to share this one with my son now that he is old enough to enjoy it.
Graveyard is a great story. Full of wonder, spooks, ghouls, and ghosts. There’s also a vampire and a werewolf. It hits all the marks, right? Not for me. I’m just not a fan of “graveyard” stuff. It’s not my thing. Reading The Graveyard book was like dating a fantastic looking guy that you have nothing in common with. I recommend you read/date The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman if you love his writing (who doesn’t the man is a genius) and love all things graveyard.
This is the story of Nobody (Bod) Owens. When he was a baby, his whole family was killed. Bod narrowly escaped and ended up toddling into a graveyard near by. Now he is being raised by ghost and his guardian – Silas – is the only one besides Bod that can travel between the living and the dead. So he is in charge of keeping Bod fed and clothes and protecting him from the killer that still seeks him out.
As Bod grows, even though he is human, he is able to do a few things like the dead. He can make himself fade from view from the living. He can see well in the dark. He can slink between walls. All powers he has only because of the protections of the graveyard.
As Bod gets older, he wants more and more to leave the graveyard. He wants to go to school, to make friends, to have a life among the living. But Silas warns how dangerous this could be. The killer – Jack – is still out there looking for Bod. In the end, Silas gives in, and lets Bod attend school. But it quickly becomes a grave error when Bod refuses to lay down to a bully and he draws attention to himself. He soons realizes that he cannot be among the living until Jack is caught.
Enter Scarlett. When Bod was a little boy, Scarlett had visited the graveyard with her parents, but then moved away. Now, at age 14, she is back, and Bod and she become friends. Scarlett comes to the graveyard to visit, and meets a Mr. Frost who befriends her and her mother. One thing leads to another, and Scarlett and Bod end up visiting Mr. Frost at his house and discover that this is the Jack that has been after Bod for so many years.
Will Bod and Scarlett escape? Will Silas return in time to help save them? You will have to read the book to find out!
We really liked the book. Neil Gaiman is such a talendted writer and there are laugh out loud moments throughout. I encourage you to read this middle grade novel either for yourself or with your children.
Very interesting narrative structure: it was episodic, like a TV show. The story follows Bod (short for Nobody), a boy who grows up in a graveyard, throughout multiple episodes of his life, but there is an overarching storyline of the man who killed Bod’s family; hints of him reappear throughout the stories, and that plot line wraps up in the last two “chapters.” It was a unique concept a far as the story itself, also. Enjoyed it!
Have read 3 want to read again. Sticks with me. Like to revisit again and again love the characters
Wow, what to say about this book? THE GRAVEYARD BOOK is riveting, imaginative, gripping, haunting. I love Gaiman’s imagination! I listened to the audio version, narrated by Gaiman himself, and it was a fantastic experience. Highly recommended.
One of my FAVORITES! Recommended to me based off my love for Time for Andrew: A Ghost Story by Mary Downing Hahn.
I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I loved it.
Nobody Owens’s family was killed by a Jack. He, just a toddler, escaped and is growing up in the graveyard. His adoptive parents, as well as all of the residents of the Graveyard, worked hard to raise him, and teach him all the important stuff, like fading, raising fear and terror in the room, the real history. 🙂
When his killer is finally beaten, he can leave. But leaving means he can never come back again.
It’s about growing up, about letting go and moving on. It’s a bittersweet, but so very beautiful tale.
This is such a lovely and unique tale about a little boy named “Bod.” The Graveyard Book is full of quirky characters which Gaiman brings to life with grace and charm. The bittersweet notes in the story resonated with me and left me sad, but hopeful, at the end. Beautiful work!
The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman, tells the story of Bod Owens, a boy who is raised in a graveyard. His entire family is killed when he’s a toddler and he himself escapes only by lucky accident. When he wanders into the local cemetery later that night, the resident ghosts take pity on the child and grant him the “freedom of the cemetery.” The Owenses, a kindly ghost couple from the 18th century, become his new parents, and a mysterious spectral being named Silas his guardian.
You might think a book about such a situation would be morbid but in it doesn’t feel that way at all, largely because Gaiman writes his characters with a lot of warmth and generosity. The ghosts are regular, pleasant people, for the most part, and treat Bod with more kindness than he ever finds in the world of the living. For his part, Bod helps the ghosts as well, giving the Owenses the chance to be parents that they never had in real life, finding a proper headstone for a witch burned at the stake in the 1600s, and providing a playmate to children who died young.
The main point of fascination in the book is just how the afterlife works, and Gaiman does not disappoint in either quotidian life or mythology. We meet an endless succession of graveyard denizens from different eras going about their business, each with his own archaic vocabulary and worldview, who together make up an insular but complete mini-town of the dead. Then there are ghouls who enter the cemetery through a particular unkempt grave, an ancient demon far beneath the hill who has guarded an ancient king’s treasure for 10,000 years, and all sorts of other mystical creatures and spirits operating in the next plane.
Eventually, Bod grows up and must venture out into the world of the living, where he discovers the man who killed his family is still on the hunt for him. I leave the why, and what Bod does about it, for the reader to find out, but I will mention that the things he learned to do from the dead in the cemetery–fading from the view of the living, entering dreams, and other exotic powers–give him a fighting chance against the sort of ruthless foe who has no qualms about killing a small child.
I would recommend this book to anybody with a taste for fantasy. The writing is beautiful without being ornate, the subject matter fascinating, the tone dignified. It is YA and thus aimed at teen-agers, but I see no reason an adult of any age wouldn’t enjoy it. For that matter, I think the material is safe enough for more mature younger readers as well, say an eight-year old who has made it through The Hobbit. Rather than being scary, the book really demystifies life after death, and may even be a comfort to an older child with a lot of questions about death and what comes after. I previously knew Gaiman only from his Sandman comics, and am happy to see his talent translate so readily to prose as well.
This book was AMAZING. If you want that Nightmare Before Christmas feel ever again in your life then read this book.
I saw Neil Gaiman talking about this book on the The Book Scottish Book Show and was so intrigued that I called my indie book store the next day and ordered a copy. Well, Neil comes from the town I live in so they had a copy in. I read it in one sitting, completely entranced by the characters. It’s sort of on a level with Harry Potter, but most of the characters are ghosts – “it takes a graveyard to raise a child”. Just loved it.