The Graveyard BookBy: Neil Gaiman
When a small boy is orphaned after his family is brutally murdered, he toddles his way to a nearby graveyard and is taken in by the graveyard inhabitants and renamed “Bod” Nobody Owens.
Bod grows up in the graveyard and learns most of his life lessons from ghosts, ghouls, witches, and a nocturnal guardian named Silas that ensures Bod has food, books, and anything else he might need from the world of the living.
As Bod gets older he begins wondering about his history as well as the world outside of the graveyard. After making a human friend and eventually venturing from the graveyard he begins to crave more from the human world. However, each time he strays from the safety of the graveyard he finds new dangers as well as leading the man that killed his family closer to finding him.
This book begins with the grisly account of Bod’s family being murdered then settles down into the premise of the book. It picks up by chapter four and from that point on the book takes on a life of its own and is completely unable to be put down. Readers will certainly enjoy Bod’s adventures (as I did) and all the characters that take part in his upbringing. My personal favorite was Liza, the witch buried in Potter’s Field, an area saved for criminals, witches, and other unsightly types. Each characters portrayal is richly detailed but the plot still moves at a swift (“What’s going to happen next?” anxiety building) pace. This book is a little fantasy, a little mystery, a little scary all rolled into one and readers will enjoy experiencing all of it with the little boy called Nobody.
