The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is a young adult novel set, as the title indicates, in a cemetery.

A young family is viciously murdered in their home by a mysterious figure known as Jack. During the attack the family's toddler wanders out of the house and down the road to a cemetery, where it quickly draws the attention and affection of a long deceased couple. They mask the boy's presence from the killer and adopt him as their own.

The boy, renamed Nobody Owens, grows up in the graveyard under the watchful eye of the numerous souls buried there. As he matures he longs for the world outside the gates, a world of flesh and blood, of living human beings - and a world where a murderer is still searching for the boy that escaped his wrath.

This is written as a young adult novel, and by most accounts fits the bill, but there is a good deal of violence for something aimed at 9-12 year olds. In particular the murder of the family, and the eventual confrontation between Nobody and his nemesis, come on a little strong in my opinion.

Even so, Gaiman is a wonderful, imaginative writer, and if you are comfortable with your child handling a few pages of blood, by all means pick up a copy.

2.90 out of 4