Rent: The Graveyard Book

By Neil Gaiman

Overview & Description

In The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman has created a charming allegory of childhood. Although the book opens with a scary scene--a family is stabbed to death by "a man named Jack” --the story quickly moves into more child-friendly storytelling. The sole survivor of the attack--an 18-month-old baby--escapes his crib and his house, and toddles to a nearby graveyard. Quickly recognizing that the baby is orphaned, the graveyard's ghostly residents adopt him, name him Nobody ("Bod"), and allow him to live in their tomb. Taking inspiration from Kipling’s The Jungle Book, Gaiman describes how the toddler navigates among the headstones, asking a lot of questions and picking up the tricks of the living and the dead. In serial-like episodes, the story follows Bod's progress as he grows from baby to teen, learning life’s lessons amid a cadre of the long-dead, ghouls, witches, intermittent human interlopers. A pallid, nocturnal guardian named Silas ensures that Bod receives food, books, and anything else he might need from the human world. Whenever the boy strays from his usual play among the headstones, he finds new dangers, learns his limitations and strengths, and acquires the skills he needs to survive within the confines of the graveyard and in wider world beyond. (ages 10 and up) -–Heidi Broadhead

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Book Details

ISBN 10: 0060530928
ISBN 13: 9780060530921
320 pages.
First Published:10/1/2008
List Price:17.99
FREE to rent with membership

 

Categories this title is in
Children's Books, Literature & Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Horror, All Categories, Ages 9-12, Literature, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic, Spine-Chilling Horror, McKean, Dave, Ghosts, Genre Fiction

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Reviews:

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jent2002 writes,

Neil Gaiman has proven once again, that young adult readers are not the only ones who can enjoy a well-written and captivating story. The Graveyard Book is a fairy tale, a cautionary tale, an adventure, yet it’s spooky, magical, and haunting. It is, in a word, wonderful.

A precocious toddler escapes his crib while his family is tragically murdered. The child crawls into a cemetery where he is followed by his family’s killer, the “residents” of the cemetery decide that the child is special and give him the “freedom of the graveyard.” The boy is adopted by the Owens’ who raise him and the inhabitants of the graveyard protect, care, and school him. As Bod grows older, he naturally resumes a teenager’s curiosity and desire to explore with varying results

In the end, I would love to learn more about Bod’s travels.

AmandaWhisner writes,

This wonderful "retelling" of jungle book is another beauty by Neil Gaiman. From the first line you are sucked in by the nose...great for all ages!

Robert W. writes,

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