“There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.” A large black and white sketch of the said knife joins the first line of Neil Gaiman’s Newberry Award winning The Graveyard Book. Not a graphic novel and not a picture book, Gaiman’s work falls somewhere in-between, a growing trend to challenge the conventions of traditional storytelling.
The Graveyard Book tells the story of Nobody Owens, Bod for short, and how he was orphaned and raised by inhabitants of a graveyard. This may not sound like the best story for children and some parents may opt out of this one due to the appearance of ghosts, ghouls, werewolves, and witches. But these supernatural beings allow Bod to face his deepest fears, learn about love and friendship, and grow into the life he is destined to live.
The story itself may seem a familiar one for anyone who has read The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. In Kipling’s tale, a young orphan, Mowgli is raised in the jungle by animals and has a mortal enemy who wants him dead. Bod is raised by ghosts and has Jack, the man who assassinated his parents, out to get him. But he is protected and watched over by Silas, a not dead but not quite alive character who wears black. Structurally, many of the middle chapters read as stand alone short stories, but taken and pieced together form a coherent whole. Black and white sketches are strewn throughout usually opening each chapter.
I enjoyed reading about Bod and his adventures. I loved some of the quotes, especially this one from Silas to Bod:
“You’re alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you’re dead, it’s gone. Over. You’ve made what you’ve made, dreamed your dream, written yor name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished” (Gaiman, 179).
It’s also going to be made into a film, joining a couple of other Gaiman works, Coraline and Stardust.
Here’s a trailer of the book with Gaiman narrating to some of the illustrations. 
