#9 - The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman
2009 Newbery Medal Winner
Fantasy

My first introduction to the writing of Neil Gaiman was with his extremely popular graphic novel series The Sandman.  This series is definitely not for children, but it is a great example of how Gaiman blends mythology and legend into his writing.

I remember seeing this book at Barnes and Noble with the gold Newbery Medal gleaming on the hardcovers and I was like "I can't believe it.  Neil Gaiman won the Newbery Medal."  This is not to say that Gaiman is a bad writer, but having read some of his adult literature and I was surprised that the Newbery committee would pick a known fantasy writer like him to win the medal.  While all genres are represented on the Newbery list, the majority of the books are realistic fiction (either contemporary or historical).

I couldn't afford a copy of the book at the time so I borrowed it from the library and loved it.  Somehow, I never ended up with my own copy, which I remedied a few months ago.  I started rereading it yesterday and for a moment, I wondered if it was really as good as I remembered.

The answer is yes.

The story opens with a murder.  The man Jack murders a family but somehow misses the youngest child which escapes his crib and wanders out of the house into the local historical graveyard.  The ghost of his murdered mother cries out to the other ghosts to protect him so he is given the "Protection of the Graveyard" and given the name Nobody Owens.

The rest of the book is a series of short stories about Nobody's (or Bod's) adventures growing up in the graveyard.  He is now allowed to leave as he would lose his protections.  This makes his education difficult.  He is cared for by Mr. and Mrs. Owens, who are ghosts, and Silas, who is a vampire (although it's not expressly stated but there are clues).  Gaiman says he was inspired by The Jungle Book, which is occasionally paralleled in this book.