The Graveyard Book

Gaiman, Neil

ISBN 10: 0606148833 ISBN 13: 9780606148832

Publisher: Turtleback Books, 2018

Synopsis

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Raised since he was a baby by ghosts, werewolves, and other residents of the cemetery in which he has always resided, Bod wonders how he will manage to survive amongst the living with only the lessons he has learned from the dead.

About this title

Review:

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

From the Back Cover:

It takes a graveyard to raise a child.

A commemorative edition of a perennial favorite, The Graveyard Book, which has sold more than one million copies and is the only novel to win both the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal. Includes the story behind The Graveyard Book from Neil Gaiman and sketches from Dave McKean.

About this edition

• Publisher: Turtleback Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0606148833
• ISBN 13: 9780606148832
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 368