The spirit is willing

Gaiman, N. (2008) The Graveyard Book. New York, NY: Harper Collin’s Children’s Books

Narrowly escaping the murderer who killed his family, a baby crawls his way into a nearby graveyard.  Here the resident ghosts decide to take him in and raise him.  His new mom, Mrs. Owens, declares he doesn’t look like nobody but himself and gives him the name “Nobody Owens.”  But the Murderer is still out there, somewhere.  As the boy grows he’ll need to be protected and prepared.  Can the undead really prepare a living boy for the world outside the graveyard?

        I absolutely loved this book.  The story was unique and inventive.  The characters, living or dead, were deep and well thought out.  Gaiman does a great job also creating different moods for the same place, dependent on the character you’re following.  The story doesn’t overdue the supernatural elements, instead the feel like natural parts of the story.  You don’t have to know any more than Bod knows to understand what’s going on.  I recommend this book to anyone who can read, and if they can’t, read it to them.