Book Review: The Graveyard Book By: Neil Gaiman

 

Book Description:
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.

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. 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:
My sister-in-law recommended this book to me and I just have to say...what a FABULOUS book! It started out dark but of course it's Neil Gaiman. I LOVED the writing, I enjoyed the characters and how individual each of them were! I enjoyed the moral of the story. Overall I would own this book for my kids to read because it was wonderful and full LIFE! ;)
I think I enjoyed the characters more than the actual story. I really liked Nobody- the main character and his view of the world. He's so honest and doesn't believe in talking nonsense. Silas was mysterious and intelligent- I found him really fun to read about. 
I had to ask my sister-in-law how a book gets a Newbery Award (since her BA is in English) she said it's about the writing and the character has to go through some sort of growing experience. Which helped me understand why this was chosen.
Overall I just loved the creative writing that Neil Gaiman had when he wrote this book. I would recommend it to anybody!

Language: none
Violence: moderate
Sexual Content: none
Drugs/Alcohol: none

Due to the beginning I wouldn't recommend this to children under the age of 13