Springville Library Book Nook

The Graveyard by Neil Gaiman From Inside the Cover: Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy --- an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack --- who has already killed Bod's family.... My Review: I read this book because it is a Newbery Award-Winning Book and because of it's intriguing storyline about a boy who grows up in a graveyard. It's a story unlike any other where the dead raise the living and protect him from the outside world. The main character Bod learns skills that no normal boy would learning including Fading, Dreamwalking, Haunting and Fear. He learns history from the dead and eventually longs to leave the graveyard and have some contact with the outside world. His ventures outside of the graveyard get him into trouble and cause him to use his skills from the graveyard. While he very clearly does not fit in the world because of his experiences, he must learn of the world so that he can one day be apart of it, but not until after he overcomes the threat to his life. This is an oddly intriguing story. Neil Gaiman has a way of pulling you into the story, making you wonder where he could possibly take Bod next. The illustrations that are only found at the beginning and/or end of the chapters are haunting and curious. There is plenty of mystery surrounding the events and characters to make you wonder and keep reading in order to find answers. It's an enjoyable read, with a pace that keeps your attention. I recommend this book to those who are looking for something a little different. It's a short read, being only eight chapters long, that expands your imagination outside the norm. It takes a strange but entertaining look at the basic storyline of "The Jungle Book" where a boy is raised by a group that is not his own people, but instead of animals, it's the dead.