Neil Gaiman
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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Ages 9-12 -> General
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 42
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
It Takes a Graveyard 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
There is a moment in Gaiman's opus Sandman which stands out to this day. As punishment to a writer, a power curses him with an endless flow of ideas which he can neither control nor even pause to write (the two that I remember were about a "were-goldfish" and a man who inherits a library card to the great library at Alexandria). What stood out was how each of the ideas was intriguing as it was bizarre. Reading the Grave Yard Book I am reminded of the question that occurred to me at the time - how close is that character's experience to Neil Gaiman's real life?
Long recognized by those readers who appreciate his extraordinary imagination and his gift for prose, The Grave Yard book serves as a case in point; how does Gaiman come up with these ideas? A series of linked short stories, the novel features the protagonist of "Nobody Owens," who as a toddler after the murder of his family wonders into a grave yard where the Ghosts in residence adopt him agreeing to raise him as there own. What follows are a series of linked short stories, each bearing the author's trademarks of dark humor, a deep understanding of a variety of topics mundane and arcane, and an ability to take common myths in uncommon new directions.
No one would be surprised at the gallows humor which run through this work, yet it is Gaiman's sensitivity to his characters which marks this work with a tenderness not found in much of his other work (Sandman standing out for me as a notable exception). In his treatment of Nobody's struggles Gaiman show's a tenderness for his circumstance, while at the same time tapping into a number of universal themes of the challenges of childhood. Gaiman famously composed his Stardust as a sort of homage to a time when distinctions of genre were far less severe and high fiction fantasy was noted more for the former description than the latter (such as Tolkien's day). In the same way, the Grave Yard Book shows flashes for Gaiman's appreciation of the Brother's Grimm.
In the end, the highest two points of praise I can give this book are that not only could I not put it down, but also that I seem unable to stop recommending it to near everyone I see. As is so often the case in his work, Gaiman has crafted a world at once unique, familiar, scary, and wholly mesmerizing.
Editorial Review:
Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.
He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.
There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.
But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family. . . .
Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, the graveyard book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.
