Children's Book review

The Graveyard Book

By Neil Gaiman

Published by Bloomsbury

Bod finds himself brought up in a graveyard by ghosts – an array of century-spanning characters who care for him, impart wisdom and even teach body-fading skills.

Bod sometimes goes beyond the graveyard into the world of the living – and here his life is under threat from the man Jack, who has sought him since he was a baby.

Gaiman offers a wonderful story of life and death in this book, with a brilliantly engaging hero in Bod.

The reader must navigate some occasionally bizarre narrative twists, but Gaiman conjures this fabulously original story through humour, surprise and an ability to combine the poetic, the resonant and the gruesome.

Chris Riddell’s illustrations confirm the delicious sense of unsettling people and presences that run throughout.

Winner of the 2009 Newbery Medal in the US and the 2009 Booktrust Teenage Prize.

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Illustrator: Chris Riddell
Reading age: 9+
Interest level: 10+