The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
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Book Reviews of The Graveyard Book
Book Review: Stunning
Summary: 5 Stars
I hate to say it (I really do), but OSC has found his match for me. Gaiman has rocked my literary world once again.
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Graveyard-Book-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0060530928/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233094344&sr=1-1">The Graveyard Book</a> tells the tale of Bod Owens with such character compassion and unique story line that I was nearly speechless on the final page. Nearly, as I would categorize minor tears and sniffling as speech.
The story of an infant finding a surreal home, has much taken from Kipling's stories... but the level of attachment I had to Bod was unlike any of my attempts at attachment with Mowgli (and there have been a couple... as recently as 2008). The cast of supporting characters is wonderful, with hints when the cast is not as important, such as merely giving us their epitaphs, and masked details when the character is direly important to the life or death of our beloved main character.
Perhaps, as a fan of the mythical (though not necessarily a fanatic), I was more in tune with the bits and pieces than other readers might be. Perhaps, as a mother of two boys, I was more involved with the destiny of an infant who climbed out of his crib and escaped murder when the rest of his family was not so cunning.
No matter how I look at it though, I desparately want to know what becomes of Bod, now that the graveyard gates are open to him, he has as passport in the name of Nobody Owens, and a wallet full of money. I want to know if Silas, who doesn't get into trouble, ever needs to call on this foster child, in the future. I want to know if, after another 10 years, Scarlett is allowed to remember again.
I want to know if the final man Jack can rebuild, and if Bod has more in his future than one meet up.
To want more is the highest compliment I can give a book.
Bravo, Gaiman. Bravo.
Book Review: Great Newbery Choice - The Graveyard Book
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my favorite books of the year won the Newbery this week. I saw Neil Gaiman speak at the BEA authors' breakfast last year. He talked about The Graveyard Book, the story of a boy raised by ghosts. The idea fascinated me and I picked up a copy, but I wasn't prepared for the roller coaster, seat of your pants, wild ride I got. I had to read it in one sitting. Buy, borrow or check out this fabulous story.
The book opens with the murder of a family. The assassin frets, unable to find the one member who got away, a toddler. As he searches in a dense fog, the baby climbs into a graveyard. The ghosts of the graveyard protect the baby from the murderer and then agree to raise him. They give him the freedom of the graveyard and name him Nobody.
Bod, as he is called, flourishes with the ghosts. He is educated by various dead residents. But as he grows, the graveyard becomes stifling and Bod longs for human company. A five year old girl name Scarlett wanders into the cemetery and she and Bod become friends. Scarlett finds the graveyard scary but full of adventure as she and Bod explore. Then one day Scarlett's family moves away and she must say goodbye.
Bod is also cared for by a guardian spirit, Silas, who can move among humans and brings Bod all his food. He also provides Bod with a strict tutor, Lupescu, who teaches him lessons of the living and the dead. Bod finds these lessons useful when he is kidnapped by ghouls.
The graveyard offers all sorts of adventures for Bod, and the constant threat of the murderer keeps all the ghosts on their toes. But when Bod turns fourteen and Scarlett returns, he has to decided whether to leave his graveyard family behind and venture out into the dangerous town.
This unique tale has such heart and a surprising twist at the end. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.
Book Review: Good Night Reading for children?
Summary: 5 Stars
I picked up this book when searching for award winning books. I was also surprised to have learned that Gaiman also wrote "Coraline" which my nine-year-old daughter immensely enjoyed (saw it three times). I wanted to find something that would be fantasy but existentially based (think Halan Ellison)for children.
I think the vocabulary is sometimes at a high school or even college level (this gave me an opportunity to increase my daughters vocabulary, by quizzing her on the meaning of such words from time to time)that required explaining to my daughter, but not enough that it detracted from the reading. Gaiman's style and ease of the writing made reading out-loud reading exquistely enjoyable for me. My daughter anticipated earnestly the readings of the novel (incidently, I contingently used the book reading as a reward for putting on the jammies, brushing the teeth and be in bed before 9pm with a 90% success rate)and only a few mentions of worries on the death themes. Although a fantasy novel, the theme of death is always presented in many forms including nostalgia and rememberence of the dead, the supernatural powers of the death (myths), and respect and honor of the dead, to name a few.
I think this is a great book to read for a child who loves to hear stories and is a patient listener. The content, although dark, is no darker than some of the Grimm stories published a couple of centuries ago. The main character, a boy, asks the same questions the reader wonders about. The mystery of the boys' family's death, his tutelage by those in graveyard, and the denouement of the main plot seems to come almost to quickly given the slow built up of the first six chapters. I hope there is a sequal to the adventures of Nobody Owens as he continues to discover who he is and what his purpose in life is to become.
Book Review: Brilliant, just brilliant!
Summary: 5 Stars
Neil Gaiman is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. I recently read Coraline, my first Gaiman, and I loved it. Now I have completed the Graveyard Book and thought it was brilliant!
Although this book is fantasy and filled with ghosts, ghouls witches, hellhounds and more it is really a story of a boy trying to find his way in the world. Nobody "Bod" Owens is orphaned after his family is murdered and he somehow escapes the killer and wanders into the graveyard adjoining his home. Taken in by the ghosts residing in there he is given the freedom of the graveyard and is raised by his parents the Owens' and a guardian Silas, who provides for him because he can leave the graveyard and wander the world as a human; although never stated he is probably a vampire. Bod must remain in the graveyard because it is only here he can be protected by the killer who is still after him, for reasons that re not made known until late in the story.
The tale is told in a series of vignettes that most children can relate to - learning to spell and read, making friends, going to school, a first love and unexpected loss. It is all told in suspenseful, funny, and touching way with a good amount of horror but also a lot of love, Bod for his `family' and guardian and they for him. The ending was so touching and bittersweet I actually cried. That's a rare book that can touch me so much.
I listened to the audio version, which was read by the author himself. He brings so much to the storytelling and has one of the best (and sexiest) voices ever. I am going to pick up the hardcover version, but this audio is certainly one than can be listened to again and again. Shortly after I finished the book it was announced that it had won Audible of the Year and I can say it was very well deserved. Well done Mr. Gaiman.
Book Review: Mowgli in The October Country - A pure delight
Summary: 5 Stars
Neil Gaiman is a writer of rare imagination who can take you to the strangest, yet wondrous and most delightful, places. In The Graveyard Book, he does it in a new way, drawing on two well-known sets of tales and from them creating something that is at once new and yet intimately familiar. Imagine if Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli of his immortal The Jungle Book stories was instead found and raised by Ray Bradbury's dark but loving Elliott family of his equally immortal The October Country stories. That is what you'll find in The Graveyard Book.
As in The Jungle Book, the story here begins with a toddler, saved from a dangerous predator by the most unlikely of rescuers. But instead of being adopted by a pack of wolves, this Mowgli - who is given the name Nobody Owens - is adopted by the ghosts of a graveyard. Instead of a panther, Nobody ("Bod" for short) has a vampire as his guardian. Instead of a bear, Bod has a werewolf as his teacher. The self-important monkeys are replaced by even more self-important ghouls, and the ancient snake guarding a treasure is replaced by an even more ancient being called the Sleer.
But there is much more to The Graveyard Book than the mere retelling I've described. Gaiman brings his own personal touches, giving Bod his own problems to overcome, his own unique adventures, one of the most moving being when he goes on a quest for a memorial stone for a ghost whose unmarked grave has been long forgotten.
This is a book that enchants the reader and never quite leaves even after the story is done. Very few writers can truly capture the feelings of how wondrous childhood is, how timeless and yet how fleeting, and how bitter-sweet it is to finally leave it behind. Gaiman, like Kipling and Bradbury before him, has done it. Highly, highly recommended.