LS 5623 Advanced Literature for Young Adults

Gaiman, Neil. 2008. THE GRAVEYARD BOOK. Ill. by Dave McKean. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 9780060530921


"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." This chilling line is the opening of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. The hand belongs to a man named Jack, who uses that knife to kill all of the residents of the house bathed in darkness. Except one. A toddler, who somehow wandered out of the house to a graveyard up the hill, finds asylum in the graveyard. The inhabitants, ghosts from a variety of time periods, name the boy Nobody. Bod spends his formative years being raised by his ghostly parents and taught by his mentor, Silas, who is neither living nor dead.

If the opening line is not visual enough, it is printed on a black page with the text in white and the image of a hand holding a knife going across the page. The illustrations in this book are all black and white charcoal or pencil drawings and they add to the macabre feeling of reading a book about a boy growing up in a graveyard. Each of the chapters are like little mini-stories from Bod's life, which is probably good for weaker readers as it makes the story easier to digest piece by piece. Despite growing up in a graveyard, the love shared in Bod's family is heartwarming and the adventures with ghouls, ancient guardians, and school, make this tale one that kids are bound to enjoy.


Reviews/Awards:

Hugo Awards (WON AWARD) 2009
Los Angeles Times Book Prizes (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2008
Locus Awards (WON AWARD) 2009
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2009
Audie Award (WON AWARD) 2009
World Fantasy Awards (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2009
Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award (WON AWARD) 2009
Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2009
Book Sense Book of the Year (WON AWARD) 2009
American Library Association Notable Books for Children (WON AWARD) 2009
Great Stone Face Children's Book Award (NOMINATED FOR AN AWARD) 2009

School Library Journal: "Gaiman has created a rich, surprising, and sometimes disturbing tale of dreams, ghouls, murderers, trickery, and family."
Library Journal: "An elegant combination of Gaiman's masterly storytelling and McKean's lovely drawings."
Booklist: Star Reviewed* "This is an utterly captivating tale that is cleverly told through an entertaining cast of ghostly characters."
Voice of Youth Advocates: "Gaiman writes with charm and humor, and again he has a real winner."
Publisher's Weekly: "When the chilling moments do come, they are as genuinely frightening as only Gaiman can make them."

Other books by Neil Gaiman:
The Wolves in the Walls. ISBN 9780380810956
M is for Magic. ISBN 9780061186479
Coraline. ISBN 9780380977789






Image credit: www.pbs.org