About the Book: Middle Grade Fantasy
Hardcover: 312 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: September 30, 2008
Blurb:
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.
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. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod’s family . . . (Source: Goodreads)
About the Author:
Neil Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book. He has won numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, as well as the Newbery and Carnegie medals. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the same work, The Graveyard Book (2008). In 2013, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards. (Source: Wikipedia)
My Thoughts:
Another brilliant book from the wonderful Neil Gaiman. It is clever and imaginative, and I really liked the dark-but-not-too-dark atmosphere of the story, with graveyard spirits raising the boy Bod and protecting him from the murderer who offed his family while he was only a baby.
I read this years ago so I can’t remember the details now, but I still do remember how much I enjoyed Bod’s adventures in and out of the graveyard, and the warmth of the friendships he had forged with his unusual caretakers as well as with a human girl who assisted him in some of his adventures. As with Mr. Gaiman’s other works, this one retains the same otherworldly and magical feel of the author’s writing.
Precy Larkins 