Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book

I have not been reading nearly as much as I usually do lately. I have as many books to be read piled up as usual, but I just haven't been getting to them. One book I did get to was Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. It's technically a kid's book, so it was a nice quick read.

I always enjoy Neil Gaiman's work, and this book was no exception. It's the story of a toddler who escapes the massacre of the rest of his family by a shadowy evil figure named Jack. The boy wanders in to the cemetery up the road from his house and is given sanctuary by the ghosts who live there. Two of the ghosts adopt him and name him Nobody Owens, Bod for short. He's given the Freedom of the Graveyard, which allows him to communicate with all of the ghosts, and keeps him safe from the outside world. They make him a home in a tomb, and rely on the mysterious Silas to bring in food for Bod to eat.

Bod gets an education from a variety of otherworldly sources, encounters a shape shifter, has a run-in with goblins, meets a dead witch, and even manages to attend a real school for a while. Over the years he picks up a number of skills, learns a lot about history, and even finds his way into a mysterious prehistoric tomb guarded by an entity known only as the Sleer. All of this prepares Bod for his inevitable confrontation with Jack once he returns.

As always with Neil Gaiman, it's not just that the story is interesting and well written. It's all the little details that he includes, like the fun names the ghosts have and the inscriptions on the headstones. Thomes Pennyworth (here he lyes in the certainty of the moft glorious refurrection) teaches Bod Slipping and Fading, and Miss Letitia Borrows, Spinster of the Parrish (Who Did No Harm to No Man all the Dais of Her Life, Reader, Can You Say Lykewise?) teaches him Grammar and Composition, to name just a few. Of course, one of my favorite parts of visiting Westminster Abbey was reading the lengthy, florid and over-the-top inscriptions on the tombs there, so I guess I'm predisposed to like that sort of thing in the story.

The American edition of the book has lively illustrations by Dave McKean, which I thought added to the charm of the story. I highly recommend this book! I'm not exactly sure which age group this book is meant for, and the beginning where the family is murdered might be a bit too much for a young child, although the way it is written leaves your imagination to fill in the details. I had to ask for the book at Borders. They had only gotten two copies in and had left them in the back.