The Graveyard Book in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 08, 2009 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: owned, young-adult, newbery-medal, gr-author, magic-sci-fi-fantasy, book-club-dm

I really love Gaiman's writing style, and the way the chapters read like individual episodes but then are tied together at the end is really interesting. But I don't think the story of this book is quite as "inventive" as the blurbs on the back cover claim. The story begins with the murder of a family, but the toddler boy, who was the main intended victim, escapes unharmed. Sound familiar? Yeah. An awful lot like Harry Potter, right? The story is literally as old as Moses.

The baby boy escapes in ...more

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Dec 23, 2014 Katie rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, male-author, newbery, fantasy

The 2009 Newbery winner and an engaging story about a living boy raised by ghosts and other spirits in a graveyard. It took me a while to get into it, but I ended up really liking it.

I also liked that the edition I had contained a transcript of Gaiman's Newbery acceptance speech, in which he talked a lot about the role stories play in shaping our minds, helping us process real life, and also helping us escape from real life.

I liked the line, "Sometimes fiction is a way of coping with the poison ...more

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Sep 19, 2008 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, tween, young-adult, fantasy-and-sci-fi, paranormal, vampires, werewolves, mythopoeic, coming-of-age

This starts slow, and it is quite derivative, but it is absolutely delightful! A gem! Its derivative nature is part of its charm (quite similar to the Harry Potter stories), because I never thought to put those ideas together quite like that.

This is really a fairy tale for adults, more than it is a children's book. A few years back, I started reading this to my kids (I guess they were 8 and 11), and they told me to stop because it was too creepy. I could see their point, the first chapter is pre This starts slow, and it is quite derivative, but it is absolutely delightful! A gem! Its derivative nature is part of its charm (quite similar to the Harry Potter stories), because I never thought to put those ideas together quite like that.

This is really a fairy tale for adults, more than it is a children's book. A few years back, I started reading this to my kids (I guess they were 8 and 11), and they told me to stop because it was too creepy. I could see their point, the first chapter is pretty intense. After that it eases up, but I think many of the jokes and allusions will go over kids' heads. It will likely seem too childish to most teens. I think adults who are looking for that mythical "magic of childhood" would be the best audience.

It took me til chapter 4 to realize this is a collection of self-contained stories, each chapter with a beginning and middle and end, all with the same group of characters, almost like a book of short stories. (And QUITE like a comic book series!)

I listened to the full cast production of the audiobook, and I had a really hard time finding out who was doing each voice, so I gathered together the info I could find (a lot of this info comes from the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-58h...). Some of this info can be a bit spoilery, so I spoiler-tagged most of it.:
Derek Jacobi - narrator
Miriam Margolyes - Mrs. Owens and Miss Lupescu
Julian Rhind-Tutt - Silas
Robert Madge - Nobody “Bod” Owens
(view spoiler)

This is the most impressive audiobook I've listened to so far! The editing and cast are fantastic, each voice is exactly what I wanted it to be, and it is put together seamlessly. ...more

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Jan 11, 2014 Anie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, male-protagonist, male-author, sff, own, childrens-and-ya, 2014

I sat down today, intending to read the first chapter of this book and then get back to work.

... and then, Reader, I devoured the whole thing.

This book is beautiful. Gaiman's works are, to my mind, sometimes a bit distanced; beautiful and strange worlds to be watched and wondered at, but not necessarily worlds that you live in. You live in this book. You walk with Bod, you feel comforted when Silas appears, you look longingly after Scarlett. You're another ghost in the graveyard.

Fantastic, in al ...more

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Apr 14, 2011 mstan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: american, for-young-adults-or-children, new-sanctuary, fantasy, 2na, src-summer-2011

This is another of those books which people whose opinion I respect greatly have loved. Yet... it leaves me a little cold. I think it is a sweet story, and the bond between Silas and Bod (not to mention Bod's ghostly parents) is lovely, as is the idea of situating a bildungsroman in a graveyard. Yet I was not gripped by the narrative nor completely swayed by the dialogue. Could it be a little too middle-school? ...more

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Nov 30, 2010 Erin (NY) rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-i-own, kids-book, ya, read-in-2013, fantasy, paranormal

I liked this book a lot, but I wouln't consider this a children's book, it is too grim to be one. That said, it wasn't scary or dark for me as an adult. I also very much enjoyed the writing. ...more

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