"The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman (2008)

You recently read the book "Coraline" to your oldest son's 2nd grade class. The kids loved the book and you fell in love with Neil Gaiman's writing style. When you saw this one in the store, you thought it might be fun to read to them too. That didn't work out so well.

The only reason you didn't read "The Graveyard Book" to the 2nd graders is because of the opening pages. Gaiman starts the book with a triple homicide. Even though he doesn't describe the murders and the action all takes place just after the gruesome deeds, the knife is still dripping with fresh blood, and that is just not okay to read to other people's kids. You would be fine if Nico read it, but other parents should get to make that call for their own children, not you.

The homicides didn't stop you from reading the book however! Winner of the Carnegie Medal, "The Graveyard Book" is classically British and deliciously dark. The murderer, called only 'the man Jack,' in the book's opening scene misses one member of the family, the baby. The nameless toddler escapes the carnage and finds himself in a nearby ancient cemetery. He falls under the protection of the ghosts who live there and he is adopted by a couple who died a hundred years before he was born. They name the baby Nobody and give him their own last name Owens. Since Nobody Owens is raised by spirits, he is protected and provided for by someone who can actually leave the graveyard, a foreboding character named Silas (who is totally a vampire, but Gaiman never admits it). Nobody (or 'Bod' for short) grows up rarely ever leaving the borders of the graveyard. He is granted certain special powers and knowledge as part of his status as a denizen of the realms of the dead.

"The Graveyard Book" is written for younger readers but it gives them credit for being able to handle darker subject matters. Bod explores the more grim aspects of life, how some lives are ended unfulfilled, the realization that life is anything but fair, the undeniable fact that death comes for all of us, and the freedom in understanding that that fact is not something to be afraid of. He is more comfortable with the dead than with the living. As he grows, Bod befriends a friendless witch, goes on a sortie into the underworld of the ghouls, and consorts with a  werewolf, among other adventures.

Gaiman often writes about worlds beneath our reality, or parallel to it, worlds which are otherwise unseen, but no less real. He writes in the perfect way to allow the reader's mind to effortlessly fill in the gaps. As you read "The Graveyard Book" (and "Coraline") you were fascinated with how he could tease out your imagination, how the writing itself set your mind on a course to create a depth to this imaginary world that exists somewhere other than on the pages. Gaiman leaves certain details tantalizingly un-fleshed out, questions frustratingly unanswered. This style of writing makes it clear that the author has their world fully formed and is only telling you a small story that exists in a tiny corner of that larger world. This entices you to think about the book and the fantasy world far after you are done reading. And it reminds you that this world, the one in which we are all living, is filled with wonder and mystery. It reminds you to keep your mind open and find the story in everyday events, the wonder in the depths of your own mind.




On to the next book!