NEIL GAIMAN THE GRAVEYARD BOOK MOVIE
NEIL GAIMAN THE GRAVEYARD BOOK FULL

For close to an hour there were the sounds of only rain and story. I read the last of “The Graveyard Book” to my class on a gloomy day.

The story’s language and humor are sophisticated, but Gaiman respects his readers and trusts them to understand. Children will appreciate Bod’s occasional mistakes and bad manners, and relish his good acts and eventual great ones. They would certainly want to look for Silas in his chapel, maybe climb down (if they were as brave as Bod) to the oldest burial chamber, or (if they were as reckless) search for the ghoul gate. Gaiman’s remarkable cemetery is a place that children more than anyone would want to visit. While “The Graveyard Book” will entertain people of all ages, it’s especially a tale for children. When he is 12 things change, and the novel’s momentum and tension pick up as he learns why he’s been in the graveyard all this time and what he needs to do to leave. Along the way, he encounters hideous ghouls, a witch, middle school bullies and an otherworldly fraternal order that holds the secret to his family’s murder. In this moonlit place, the boy - who is given the name Nobody Owens, or Bod for short - has adventures, makes friends (not all of them dead), and begins to learn about his past and consider his future. And they do, ably led by Silas, an enigmatic character who is not really one of them, being not quite dead and not quite living. (Gaiman has said that “The Jungle Book” was one of his influences.)Īmong the dead are teachers, workers, wealthy prigs, romantics, pragmatists and even a few children - a village ready to raise a living child. Within its reassuringly locked gates, the boy finds a safe and cozy place to grow up. The tone shifts elegantly from horror to suspense to domesticity, and by the end of the first chapter Gaiman has established the graveyard as the story’s center.

NEIL GAIMAN THE GRAVEYARD BOOK FULL

Up the hill trots the toddler, to a graveyard full of ghosts who take him in. The action isn’t described, and the fourth-grade class I read the book to had no problem whatsoever.) (Parents may worry about the violence, but they shouldn’t. The story opens with a pretty terrifying situation: a man has slaughtered a family in the middle of the night, all save a toddler who escapes unnoticed, walking out the front door and away from the mayhem. “There are books that are best sellers and books that are winners,” he said in an interview with The New York Times.īut none of this will matter to readers - for “The Graveyard Book,” by turns exciting and witty, sinister and tender, shows Gaiman at the top of his form. Gaiman himself seemed surprised by the honor. After the prize was announced last month, a debate ensued among teachers, librarians and critics about whether the selection of a popular author was a departure for the Newbery, one of the most prestigious prizes in children’s books - and, if so, whether it was a welcome one. Now his latest novel for children, “The Graveyard Book,” has won a top literary honor as well: this year’s Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature.

NEIL GAIMAN THE GRAVEYARD BOOK MOVIE

In the end, it is many of these lessons that lead him to face the villain, the ‘man named Jack’.With best-selling books for adults and children - including “Coraline,” a brand-new animated movie - Neil Gaiman has carved out a passionate following in the world of fairy tale and fantasy. Through these distinct personalities, Bod understands friendship, respect, love, and sacrifice. Owens, the mysterious Silas, the stern Miss Lepescu, and Scarlett Amber Perkins, his one human friend. At least, unable to be seen even if he is not truly invisible.īod is surrounded by a lively cast of characters, including the moody witch Liza, the doting Mrs. As Bod grows up in the graveyard, he learns to read and write, to call for help in several languages, and even Fading, a ghostly skill of becoming invisible. What a creative way of taking the aversion and fear out of graveyards and making it a place of peace and safety. The infant, aptly named Nobody (Bod) Owens, is raised by ghosts in a graveyard. The Graveyard Book opens with a dark and brutal scene of a family being murdered by a ‘man named Jack’ but that same chapter also contains the escape of an infant to the security and safety of an unlikely set of guardians. The illustrations in this book (by Dave McKean) add to both the mood and the spirit of the story. In this respect, I think he is a fabulous writer of both adult and children’s novels. The 10th anniversary edition of The Graveyard Book includes a foreword by Margaret Atwood as well as sketches from the illustrator, handwritten drafts, and Neil Gaiman’s Newbery acceptance speech. Though considered a children’s book (as was Coraline), I’ve always thought Neil Gaiman’s writing style never catered to children, but told the story without sacrificing adult themes being included.

Neil gaiman the graveyard book