The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman
Imagine The Jungle Book with the jungle replaced by a graveyard, the wolves replaced by ghosts, Bagheera replaced by a vampire and the monkeys replaced by crazy ghouls.
Nobody Owens (Bod) is Mowgli, and Shere Khan is on his trail--except that in this case, Shere Khan is the man Jack, and unfortunately, he's not afraid of fire.
So you have this crazy framework for The Graveyard Book, and it seems impossible--it could never work--who would even read something like that? Only...Neil Gaiman wrote it. So it's brilliant.
Good Points
I could go on and on, here. I could rave. Maybe I will, I'm still deciding.
First of all, it's a beautiful story. Bod's family is murdered under mysterious circumstances (we later find out that the murderer was attempting to prevent a prophecy's fulfillment) but Bod escapes as a baby and wanders into an old graveyard. In honoring Bod's mother's dying wish, Master and Mistress Owens, an older ghost couple, agree to adopt the boy and give him the Freedom of the Graveyard. This basically means that he can walk through stuff like the walls of tombs and the locked door of the abandoned chapel. He can see and feel the ghosts like normal people. Also, he can learn to Fade and Haunt and all those other items essential for raising a child.
Cool.
And then we've got Silas.
Silas can't die. But he's also not alive.
One of the most interesting things about this book is that Neil Gaiman doesn't present death in a horrifying light. He doesn't present it as something to fear. Silas can't die, he's an outside--a "solitary type". There is no death, no after for him, and he is not happier for it. Bod does not fear death.
Nobody Owens is brave. He's a good friend and he loves his adopted family and all the ghosts. He loves Silas. While the story ends on a bitter-sweet note, it's not necessarily sad. In fact, I find it hopeful, because it's not an ending, it's a beginning. Bod is growing up, and he is ready to live.
Possibly Objectionable Points
That being said, there are a couple of things I censored in this book while reading it aloud to our younger siblings.
(The negative points are the reason we categorized this novel for ages 12+. Besides these, I would hand this book out to any kid; the writing style is not hard to comprehend.)
First and foremost, Mr. Frost mentions that he's a "bit of a crusty old bachelor." Not gay, he assures Scarlett's mother, though that's what all the magazines call it. That's the only time it's ever mentioned. I'd let my fourteen-year-old sibling read that because it's brief and never comes up again. It's also rather unnecessary and I censored it out for the sake of the eight-year-old.
Violence-wise, there are a couple of things. First of all, the book starts out with Bod's family being murdered.
While we don't see the actual murders taking place, we know that the man Jack just killed Bod's parents and sister in their beds, and he's getting ready to kill Bod, too--until the baby escapes.
Second of all, there is mention of suicide. Silas explains to an eight-year-old Bod that Potter's Fields, the part of the graveyard on the other side of the fence, is unconsecrated ground where they used to bury "criminals and the suicides and those who were not of the faith." Bod asks if they are happier dead, and Silas responds with the negative.
Speaking of Potter's Fields, this bring me to my final concern. There's a witch buried there.
I don't know that we're talking about "witch" as in actual "witchcraft"--milk went sour and horses went lame before Liza Hempstock was drowned and burned and buried in Potter's Field without a headstone. Liza's actually a very young ghost--a teenager--who befriends Bod and gets him out of several tough spots. But they call her a witch, and she calls herself a witch, so apparently she's a witch.
I know a lot of people who have concerns about things like that. For this reason, I think it's worth mentioning.
I don't know that I can quite put a finger on why The Graveyard Book is so great. It's one of those stories that sticks with you years after the first read. It's one of those books that sets a high standard for all others.
The ending isn't sad, it's bittersweet; Bod is growing up, he's moving on, and he is ready to leave his childhood behind and live in the world of the living.
