The Graveyard Book

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Product Description

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.

He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.

But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family. . . .

Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic Coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, the graveyard book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.

Amazon.com Review

In The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman has created a charming allegory of childhood. Although the book opens with a scary scene--a family is stabbed to death by "a man named Jack” --the story quickly moves into more child-friendly storytelling. The sole survivor of the attack--an 18-month-old baby--escapes his crib and his house, and toddles to a nearby graveyard. Quickly recognizing that the baby is orphaned, the graveyard's ghostly residents adopt him, name him Nobody ("Bod"), and allow him to live in their tomb. Taking inspiration from Kipling’s The Jungle Book, Gaiman describes how the toddler navigates among the headstones, asking a lot of questions and picking up the tricks of the living and the dead. In serial-like episodes, the story follows Bod's progress as he grows from baby to teen, learning life’s lessons amid a cadre of the long-dead, ghouls, witches, intermittent human interlopers. A pallid, nocturnal guardian named Silas ensures that Bod receives food, books, and anything else he might need from the human world. Whenever the boy strays from his usual play among the headstones, he finds new dangers, learns his limitations and strengths, and acquires the skills he needs to survive within the confines of the graveyard and in wider world beyond. (ages 10 and up) -–Heidi Broadhead

Amazon - offers:

The Graveyard Book: $12.23 (New)

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Amazon Customer Reviews:

D. Myers: Very good story
I don't read much SciFi but saw a review of this book and got it to read. It was excellent. I really enjoy stories that take me on a storyline I would never have conceived on my own and this is one. Also, I don't read gruesome stories and this one was just fine. To write a story, you need a protagonist and so the beginning of the book is very necessary for the story.
I recommend it to any adult as a good read.
geeky1 (Mariofantdp): Outstanding and addicting
This book is, in a word, outstanding. With an amazing set of characters like Nobody Owens, his godfather Silas, and his early friend Scarlett Perkins; a great storyline; and a great plot twist at the end of the book. It's a must read for everyone.

A long time ago, a family was killed inside a mansion. A father, a mother, and their daughter. The murderer? The one named Jack. He wanted four lives dead, not three. Yet a single baby escaped. And that baby ran off to a graveyard, where the caretakers of the graveyard named him Nobody, Nobody Owens. He spends almost all of his childhood in that graveyard, which is when the story takes place. He gains powers there, like how to speak with many of the ghosts set in that graveyard (For example; "Alonso Tomás Garcia Jones [1837 - 1905, Traveler Lay Down Thy Staff]."), and how to fade through objects as if they were thin air. The story technically begins when Nobody's an age of 5, and continues from there, occasionally skipping a year or two to progress further in the story. The author made the timeline work, like many other things. The weird attention to detail and grammar is one of those other things, like when Bod's chasing down a way to find the murderer who killed his parents around age 13; "He looked around the chamber, untroubled by deep darkness, seeing it as the dead see. He walked over to the alter stone set in the floor, where the cup and the brooch and the stone knife sat." Bod also heads to school in the plot, like a normal kid would. Yet he has control over everyone, including the most feared of bullies. He chooses to torment them, such as playing with one of their dreams, turning it into a nightmare, and causing mayhem like here; "Bod heard the scream, a shout of terror, and felt the satisfaction of a job well done."

This is an amazing book, and everyone should read it. You should, and your friends should. It has plenty of drama, excitement, character development, and situations that get your adrenaline rushing. Great books like this are not to be missed. It's a great read, a short book, and like most books, addicting. It'll be hard to stop reading once you begin. I recommend books like "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief" and "Eragon", because they have similar heroes and villains, and are pleasures to read.

Erin Wilcox: Enjoyable Read, Wonderful Setting
I particularly enjoyed this book's opening and use of setting. Gaiman turns the home into a graveyard and the graveyard into a home. Bod's graveyard is rich and varied, complete with not only the expected tombs, but ancient burial tunnels, portals to the underworld, and unhallowed ground. The nooks and crannies of Bod's home contained fascinating psychological resonances for the child character. Having grown up blocks away from a graveyard myself, I have always felt a special fondness for the peace and spaciousness of that setting. It was exciting to spend a whole book in a world created by someone who clearly felt a similar affinity.

A brilliant touch was the use of the inscriptions on a ghost's tombstone to identify and characterize her. It's part of the way Bod must keep it all straight, living in a neighborhood where people range in age many hundreds of years. As a speculative element, the idea that the words your loved ones leave to memorialize you become your calling card in the afterlife struck me as highly creative.

As much as I enjoyed this book, I felt the plot was a bit shallow. The heart of the story seemed to be the events following Bod's initial peril. The implicit romance between Bod and Scarlett had great potential. It was hard for me to get too worried about Bod when I knew he was and would remain safe from any external threat. There are deeper psychological tensions having to do with coming of age that the author could have used to structure the story. This flaw becomes most evident at the book's climax and resolution.

I read the Kindle edition and was very happy with the way the illustrations enhanced the experience. Dave McKean did some great work.
Stephen Sarrica: Recommended
Gaiman is in top form here with the story of an orphaned little boy raised in a graveyard by a truly unusual ad hoc family. An excellent YA book that examines lots of Big Questions without seeming like it. What is a family? What is it to be human? What happens when we die? Are there really monsters? Not for the younger set because of some dark moments.
ReaderRunner: Great Neil Gaiman Book!
I am 25 and I love this book. Neil Gaiman really writes some excellent stuff. I have this title, Coraline, and Neverwhere on audibook and they all are great. The Graveyard Book is a great book for kids and adults alike and his reading of this book makes it all the more fun. If you liked Coraline, you definitely will enjoy this book! Highly recommended!