The Graveyard Book

The 10th anniversary edition of The Graveyard Book includes a foreword by Margaret Atwood as well as sketches from the illustrator, handwritten drafts, and Neil Gaiman's Newbery acceptance speech.

IT TAKES A GRAVEYARD TO RAISE A CHILD.

Nobody Owens, known as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead. There are adventures in the graveyard for a boy--an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, he will be in danger from the man Jack--who has already killed Bod's family.

The Graveyard Book, a modern classic, is the only work ever to win both the Newbery (US) and Carnegie (UK) medals.

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368 pages

Average rating: 8.06

175 RATINGS

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KatieKaz

Sep 20, 2023

8/10 stars

Such a fun book. The full cast audio performance was also brilliant. Neil Gailman writes the macabre like no one else. Read it in the fall/Halloween season if you're looking for a spooky tale.

Anonymous

Aug 01, 2023

8/10 stars

Yes, this book is kind of dark, but I'm not sure why anyone reading a book about a kid being raised by a cemetery full of ghosts would expect otherwise. But Gaiman's characters are more people than ghosts, which helps lighten things up considerably. In particular, Bod, the child in question, is a very engaging character, and since he seemed ok with his circumstances, I found it hard to argue.

My only complaint about this book is that there's too much going on in the background that is clearly significant to the plot, but is never really explained. In fact, the denouement of the story makes little sense because so little is explained. Some of it becomes clear later, but I would have liked to see some of the explanation given as it occurred, rather than just being hinted at a couple of times.

witch.riot

Jun 15, 2023

4/10 stars

I dragged this book all over the country with me, and took about two months to finish. I'm not entirely sure that I didn't like it, but it didn't do anything spectacular. Sometimes children's books are magical and eye-opening even as adults, and C. S. Lewis was a firm believer of adults reading children's books and really getting something out of them. Anyway, this one was mostly just a story where things happened.

I liked Coraline a lot better.

E Clou

May 10, 2023

8/10 stars

Starts off very violently and it made me uncomfortable recommending to my kids, but the rest of the book is appropriate enough for middle school. I love Gaiman's kids' books.

Anonymous

Apr 26, 2023

8/10 stars

So there I was sitting and thinking. "Self, how would you like to read a children's book which begins: There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife. The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately?"

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Yes, please.

This is like one of those movies that are meant for children or titled "Family" films," but they've stuck a handful of adult jokes that go over the head of your kiddo. Except that there are also some really profound thoughts and heavy subjects. And except that this is written very, very, very well. I'm four or five Gaiman books in now, and I admit that it's taken me a while to warm up. I'd say I'm definitely simmering - pretty damn close to a rolling boil.

Great story, great characters, and EXCEPTIONAL as a children's book.

"And there are always people who find their lives have become so unsupportable they believe the best thing they could do would be to hasten their transition to another plane of existence."

"They kill themselves, you mean?" said Bod. He was about eight years old, wide-eyes and inquisitive, and he was not stupid.

"Indeed."

"Does it work? Are they happier dead?"

"Sometimes. Mostly, no. It's like the people who believe they'll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but you learn it doesn't work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. If you see what I mean."