The Graveyard Book

The graveyard book / Neil Gaiman ; with illustrations by Dave McKean. – New York : HarperCollins, c2008.
312 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
ISBN: 9780060530921 (trade binding)

813.54

1. Cemeteries -- Fiction. 2. Dead -- Fiction. 3. Newbery Medal. 4. Orphans -- Fiction. 5. Supernatural -- Fiction.

As a toddler Nobody “Bod” Owens jumped the rail of his crib and slipped out of his house and wandered up to an old cemetery. It was a good thing for him that he did. A ruthless assassin was methodically knifing to death everyone in his family, and little Bod escaped the murderer just in time to be taken in by the ghostly inhabitants of the graveyard. For the next decade and a half they raise, educate, care for him, and keep him safe from the man who’s still determined to kill him.

As the only living resident of the graveyard, Bod is taught a few special skills: skills normally reserved only for the deceased, skills like fading, sliding, and dreamwalking. He learns his ABCs from the gravestones. He learns to stay away from dangerous places, like the ghoul-gate (every graveyard has one) and the school in town. There are also scary encounters with the guardian of the treasure deep under the hill, the Indigo Man with his sharp stone blade, and Jack the murderer.

Like its model, Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, The Graveyard Book alternates between fast paced, frightening adventure and reassurance that there are more experienced helpers and protectors to guide a child through the trials of growing up.