This is kind of embarrassing for this librarian to admit, but this was her first time reading anything by Neil Gaiman. He's most well known for his landmark graphic novel series The Sandman and his book Coraline has been made into a feature film that should be out very soon. The Graveyard Book has been getting accolades all over the place, so I figured I'd better check it out. The story behind the book is that Neil Gaiman wrote one of the chapters as a short story, and his daughter liked it so much and wanted to learn more about what happened before and after that he wrote the whole book.
***
A baby is alone in his room. The man Jack enters his house, killing both parents and his sister. The baby slips out, walks down the street alone, and into a graveyard, peopled by the dead from a year ago to hundreds of years ago. The people of the graveyard take in the baby, name him Nobody -- Bod for short -- and raise him. But as Nobody gets older, he starts wanting to venture outside the bounds of the graveyard. He's the only living person he interacts with on a daily basis, and he's curious. But the man Jack is still out there, and he's still looking for Bod...
The Graveyard Book is a spellbinding story, beautifully illustrated (illustrations at the beginning of each chapter) by Dave McKean, and filled with endearing characters of all ages, both dead and alive. Neil Gaiman fans have probably already read this one, but it's never too late to become a Neil Gaiman fan, as I learned reading this book.
**** 1/2
(Four and a half stars)
Recommended for: Neil Gaiman fans, those who like to read about the undead, readers of all ages looking for a fantastic, gripping, at times action-filled story
Here's the trailer for the book (Neil Gaiman is the speaker):
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