Title : The Graveyard Book
Author : Neil Gailman
Publication date : September 30th 2008
by HarperCollins
Time for Halloween read! Yep, another middle grade book, since I am such a chicken to read real ghost story! It has been a while for me to longing to read a book from Neil Gaiman. He's too famous to ignore, I see his name everywhere, novels, comic books, TV. It's time to start reading his work.
In my defense, I had no idea that this book was meant for younger readers. Not that I mind, of course. You know how much I love middle grade books. So, a bad guy came to a house one night and murdered the whole family, except for a baby. He crawled out of his house towards a nearby graveyard. A ghost couple, Mr and Mrs Owens decided to adopt him and take care of him and other ghosts of the graveyard granted him The Freedom of The Graveyard. The Owenses couple named him Nobody Owens.
I finished this book only within 24 hour. It is a real page turner. My first impression of the book, is that The Graveyard Book is the ghostly version of Tarzan/Princess Mononoke/Romulus and Remus. Bod Owens is a lovely boy. I find him to be charming and very well behaved considering he was being raised by ghosts. He also had a very cute sense of humor:
“Name the different kinds of people,’ said Miss Lupescu. ‘Now.’
Bod thought for a moment. ‘The living,’ he said. ‘Er. The dead.’ He stopped. Then, ‘... Cats?’ he offered, uncertainly.”
As a boy of his age, there were times when naughtiness stroke. Bod often found himself in danger and wish he would listen to his parents and wonderful guardian, Silas. Besides Bod, he is my favorite character in this book. He's like a superman of all the ghosts and also very wise.
“You're alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you can 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 your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished.”
As I reached the last page, I have one thing that tickled my mind. How did the ghosts babysit him? Who changed the diapers, who feed him when he's hungry in the daytime? Because in this book, it's said that they were awake when it was dark. As a mother, I would say it's an impossible situation, but hey, it's still a great story to read. It is called entertainment, after all. Having said that, I wish he would interact more with his adopted parents, though, so we as the readers would know what it is like to be raised by ghosts, things that we usually find scary.
High 5 rating for The Graveyard Book. I find it be an impressive story both for younger readers and adults. If you are looking for a ghost story that can be read at night, this is it. It won't give you nightmares.
Have you read any great ghost stories lately? What is it? Do you enjoy reading scary books and brave enough to read it at night?
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Review : The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
