Reviewed By Dawn Baertlein
Here’s a supernatural adventure for you. It starts out a bit gruesome, with a family being killed while snug asleep in their beds. But it quickly becomes oddly amusing.
The youngest of the family, a mere toddler, escapes the bloodhound-like murderer called the man Jack. The little tike is more oblivious than fearful as he climbs out of his crib for a midnight stroll out the front door and up the hill.
He arrives at a graveyard with the man Jack hot on his trail. The ghostly inhabitants have to make a quick decision. Do they mind their own business, or do they rescue the little live one and care for him until he’s big enough to care for himself?
It’s a big commitment, but the inhabitants of the graveyard vote to take it on. Mistress and Mister Owens become the boy’s guardians and name him Nobody Owens. Bod for short.
Silas, a man neither dead nor alive, ventures into the human world from time to time procuring food, clothes, books, and all the things a living child requires.
Meanwhile the entire spectral village, with death dates ranging all the way back to an ancient Roman times, educate the boy in the ways of the dead and, as best they can, the living. As long as Bod stays within the cemetery he is protected, but the world outside is full of dangers.
Bod loves his family, and the wide variety of characters from a young witch to an old poet make for a wonderful upbringing. Still, as Bod gets older he wants to walk among the living once in a while. Unfortunately, the man Jack and others like him are still looking for Bod, and for some reason want to kill him.
Author Neil Gaiman has a knack for supernatural spine tinglers with a sprinkling of dry humor, and his Graveyard Book is the 2009 Newbery Medal winner.
The Graveyard Book is suggested for ages 10 and up.
Happy Reading!
Here’s a supernatural adventure for you. It starts out a bit gruesome, with a family being killed while snug asleep in their beds. But it quickly becomes oddly amusing.
The youngest of the family, a mere toddler, escapes the bloodhound-like murderer called the man Jack. The little tike is more oblivious than fearful as he climbs out of his crib for a midnight stroll out the front door and up the hill.
He arrives at a graveyard with the man Jack hot on his trail. The ghostly inhabitants have to make a quick decision. Do they mind their own business, or do they rescue the little live one and care for him until he’s big enough to care for himself?
It’s a big commitment, but the inhabitants of the graveyard vote to take it on. Mistress and Mister Owens become the boy’s guardians and name him Nobody Owens. Bod for short.
Silas, a man neither dead nor alive, ventures into the human world from time to time procuring food, clothes, books, and all the things a living child requires.
Meanwhile the entire spectral village, with death dates ranging all the way back to an ancient Roman times, educate the boy in the ways of the dead and, as best they can, the living. As long as Bod stays within the cemetery he is protected, but the world outside is full of dangers.
Bod loves his family, and the wide variety of characters from a young witch to an old poet make for a wonderful upbringing. Still, as Bod gets older he wants to walk among the living once in a while. Unfortunately, the man Jack and others like him are still looking for Bod, and for some reason want to kill him.
Author Neil Gaiman has a knack for supernatural spine tinglers with a sprinkling of dry humor, and his Graveyard Book is the 2009 Newbery Medal winner.
The Graveyard Book is suggested for ages 10 and up.
Happy Reading!
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