31 of 52 in my 2011 book blogging challenge.
The Graveyard Book is every bit as spooky and engaging and downright wonderful as you might expect from the author of Coraline. This is a children’s book that even the most stalwart adult would find haunting, yet it is perfectly safe for children. They are used to ghost stories, are they not? Either way, if you are wondering whether this book is okay for your own child, just read it yourself. You’ll enjoy it. It’s an original.
Our protagonist is Nobody Owens. Yes, that’s right. Nobody. Bod for short. Just like Odysseus used the name Nobody to protect himself from the Cyclops, our young hero is called Nobody because this helps to hide him from the man who wants to kill him.
Bod might be an odd name, but he comes by it honestly enough in very odd circumstances. The ghosts who have adopted this living boy give him his name. Bod walks the line between the living and the dead, you see. His parents are murdered when he is only a baby, and he crawls to a nearby graveyard where his new parents have to teach him how to do things like fade from human view in order to keep him alive.
Among the many delights of the graveyard are Bod’s teachers. He learns to read and write by reading the inscriptions on tombstones, and because his graveyard has not been open for new business for quite some time, he is taught the English language of bygone eras. He is also given historical accounts of everything from plagues to piracy from people who were there.
Meanwhile he grows and begins to wonder what’s outside the gates of the cemetery. He is not allowed outside because his protectors cannot keep him safe once he leaves their territory, but the time approaches when he will be too grown up for their protections to keep working anyway. He is a living boy, after all, and when he becomes a living man, he must go out into the world to experience his own adventures.
There’s just the little matter of dealing with his would-be killer first. The man who kills his parents never gives up looking for Bod, and Bod will not be safe until he is dealt with.
You’ll have to read it to see how that turns out.
This is a macabre delight. It is perhaps somewhat reminiscent of Lemony Snicket in tone, but it is mainly just itself. An original.
