The Graveyard Book

I borrowed this book from our school library, as I was intrigued by the premise of "it takes a graveyard to raise a child." Loosely based on the concepts of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (not Disney's version), "Bod" Owens escapes death at only 18 months old, the same age as my own Max. I have a very, very hard time with this believability, but reading requires a strong suspension of disbelief.

Bod Owens' life is detailed in the book, and it is often lonely and macabre. Neil Gaiman is the author of Coraline, and like Coraline, The Graveyard Book is dark, even in it's child-like story. Bod is no older than 15 when he leaves the safety of the graveyard, and he leaves a hero. However, he's still an orphan, he still has no name, and he loses the only family he's ever known the second he leaves the graveyard for the last time.

What I was left with was a sadness. There was no triumph. There was no heroic victory. There was simply life: and life was the end of the beginning, but the point of the entire book. All in all, I recommend it. It's a nice, quick read, but it's thoughtful, and it's not a warm-fuzzy book. Emotionally, it's quite detatched, and perhaps it's better that way. After all, life doesn't begin in a graveyard.

I'd recommend this book for students in middle school. It's not hard reading, but it's not a comfortable subject.