The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman Illustrated by Chris Riddell

The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman Illustrated by Chris Riddell

One of the free books I received and a delight to read – although the first chapter was abit brutal.

Title – The Graveyard Book

Author – Neil Gaiman

Copyright – 2008

Type – Children’s Fiction

General Subject matter – Ghosts, Ghouls, Death & Murder, Fantasy, Comedy, Family

Special Features – Website noted – www.thegraveyardbook.co.uk, Individual illustrations per chapter

Price - £ 6.99 (but free to me)

ISBN 978-0-7475-9480-2

No purpose is given in the preface to this book but I suspect that is normal in children’s books – I mean who under the age of 16 reads a preface? He does sight that his inspiration for the book was seeing his son Michael when he was age two running around a graveyard on his tricycle (and the book took 20yrs to write so he must be oh 22 now). I wonder if Neil Gaiman has had any extrasensory powers or encountered friendly ghosts. He seems to write about the graveyard folk with a great affection, maybe he is trying to alter children’s perceptions of the dead by reminding us that there is good and bad in all and that guardians come in all shapes and sizes.

The book is written from a narrator’s perspective but draws on the thoughts and emotions of the characters, mainly focusing on Bod. Bod is short for Nobody the name her was given when he crawled into the yard as a baby. I think the author was trying to entice children to read about other mystical creatures as it briefly features mummies, ghosts, werewolves and vampires ;without giving too much detail about them.

I think the intended audience would be from 10-12 as younger children would find the murdering upsetting. Issues of bullying and family dynamics are dealt with in various ways. The style is that of an informal story teller that leads you by the hand through the story and the graveyard with snippets of history and descriptions of characters from various eras. It would suit children & I imagine readers of the Ruthless Romans and Terrible Tudors (horrible book series) would relish the book! What is that age when you are fascinated by witches being drowned and kings being beheaded – that age group is perfect – yr 6 maybe!

 I was intrigued to find out why Bod’s family were murdered and I must say I wasn’t that satisfied by the answer.  I think the book is good as it children in considering death and afterlife but in a positive manner. These types of books allow parents to talk to children about issues as part of day to day life – making them less scared of the unavoidable death of relatives. I must admit that I didn’t realise that the Sandman comics were by this author and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I haven’t seen Coraline but if I get time I intend to flick through that one too.