The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean review

A frequent Gaiman collaborator, McKean provided some illustrations for The Graveyard Book, but, since I read the Kindle version, I can't say whether to not all of them were included. Plus, they were on the small side and all in black and white, but his illustrations are usually pretty cool.

Anywho.

I would give this book BETWEEN 3-4 rating, but I rounded-up. The Graveyard Book is like a macabre Jungle Book, where inhe main character is a boy whose family was murdered when he was a toddler, but. the night of the murders, he escaped from his crib and made it safely to a nearby graveyard, where he was adopted by the residents there (erm... ya know... ghosts, for the most part). He is given the name 'Nobody Owens' (the surname of the wife and husband ghosts who adopted him), but is referred to primarily as 'Bod' for short.

Throughout the course of the book, Bod grows-up under the protection of the graveyard, earns some ghostly abilities, tries to make friends and after being tutored up until his teenaged years by the people of the graveyard, even tries to attend a living school, but with unfortunate circumstances. The end of the book is bittersweet, but appropriate.

I love, love, love the way Gaiman always provides so much information on the characters, who they are (or were, in this case), and there is always such a range of people, from pseudo-historical figures to demi-gods to creatures of the night, but with his own twist, and this book has its fill of a colorful and varied cast. My one qualm would be that this was supposed to be a book for fifth graders on up, and the violent opening scene describing how Jack the murderer killed his mother, father and sister is may be a bit much for a 10-year-old (or maybe I'm just a fuddy duddy).


/ [Ms. Steel]

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