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Jenna Clem, Accounts Receivable
8/11/2011 12:58:03 PM
Though considered a children’s book (as was Coraline), I’ve always thought Neil Gaiman’s writing style never catered to children, but told the story without sacrificing adult themes being included. In this respect, I think he is a fabulous writer of both adult and children’s novels. The illustrations in this book (by Dave McKean) add to both the mood and the spirit of the story.
The Graveyard Book opens with a dark and brutal scene of a family being murdered by a ‘man named Jack’ but that same chapter also contains the escape of an infant to the security and safety of an unlikely set of guardians. The infant, aptly named Nobody (Bod) Owens, is raised by ghosts in a graveyard. What a creative way of taking the aversion and fear out of graveyards and making it a place of peace and safety. As Bod grows up in the graveyard, he learns to read and write, to call for help in several languages, and even Fading, a ghostly skill of becoming invisible. At least, unable to be seen even if he is not truly invisible.
Bod is surrounded by a lively cast of characters, including the moody witch Liza, the doting Mrs. Owens, the mysterious Silas, the stern Miss Lepescu, and Scarlett Amber Perkins, his one human friend. Through these distinct personalities, Bod understands friendship, respect, love, and sacrifice. In the end, it is many of these lessons that lead him to face the villain, the ‘man named Jack’.
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