by Neil Gaiman
Flap Copy description:
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...
My thoughts:
Master storyteller, Neil Gaiman, received the 2009 Newbery Medal Award for his creative, sometimes creepy novel - The Graveyard Book. I actually put off reading this book - the subject matter just didn't appeal to me. Boy, was I wrong! This character driven adventure story is packed full of twists and turns; the reader is truly left hanging onto the nearest headstone until the last scary sequence. The bittersweet ending packs a punch as we see the protagonist, Bod, come into his own as a young man amidst his friends of ghosts and ghouls. If you have not yet read this instant classic, I would highly recommend The Graveyard Book be your next read. This fantasy novel is suitable for readers eight to eighty!
