The Graveyard Book in The Dusty Bookshelf

Sep 23, 2012 Darlene rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, books-i-own, 2012-dusty-bookshelf-challenge, 2012-ya-audiobook-challenge

This book has won a ton of literary awards!

The Graveyard Book is a fun read, with a dash of creepiness thrown in! It’s a bit of a dark tale and it sounds horrid, but there is no graphic violence. The book is rated suitable for ages 12 and up.

At the outset of the book, we learn that a man named Jack has killed a family trio: Mom, dad, and their daughter. However, the baby manages to escape from his crib and slide down the stairs on his bottom and toddle out the front door. The baby makes his way This book has won a ton of literary awards!

The Graveyard Book is a fun read, with a dash of creepiness thrown in! It’s a bit of a dark tale and it sounds horrid, but there is no graphic violence. The book is rated suitable for ages 12 and up.

At the outset of the book, we learn that a man named Jack has killed a family trio: Mom, dad, and their daughter. However, the baby manages to escape from his crib and slide down the stairs on his bottom and toddle out the front door. The baby makes his way up the hill to the cemetery, and a ghostly couple named Mr. and Mistress Owens finds him asleep on the ground. They hear the man named Jack banging on the cemetery gates, trying to get in. The child’s parents, now ghosts themselves, beg Mr. and Mistress Owens to protect their baby. The couple never had children of their own, and Mistress Owens is thrilled to raise the child that she never had herself. The child is raised by Mr. and Mistress Owen in the graveyard, but his guardian is Silas who is a member of the Honour Guard that protects both the living and the dead. No one knows the child’s name, and he is given the name of Nobody (“Bod” for short) Owens. Because he is a part of the graveyard, he is able to develop certain skills unknown to other humans, such as fading and being able to pass through solid objects. In the graveyard, he is protected from Jack and Bod is warned that it is dangerous for him beyond the cemetery gates. As Bod grows older, he wants to explore the world outside the cemetery but doing so puts Jack back on Bod’s trail!

Memorable quote:

“It's like the people who believe they'll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn't work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.” - Silas

Gaiman is a new-to-me author, and this was a great Halloween read! I particularly liked Miss Lupescu, Bod’s teacher in the graveyard who could shape-shift into lupine form! It wasn’t until near the end of the story that we finally learn why Jack is after Bod. I think that Gaiman is a great story-teller, and I will definitely read more of his work.

This version of the audiobook is narrated by Gaiman himself. I quite liked his reading, and I thought he did a fine job.

MY RATING: 4 stars!! It was really good! You should put it on your "To Be Read" list.

This was review was originally posted on my blog:
http://darlenesbooknook.blogspot.ca/2... ...more

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Jun 08, 2014 Jensen Wahlquist rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-1-12

Bod Owens's family was brutally murdered when he was just a baby, but somehow he managed to escape the same cruel fate. He crawls his way to a nearby graveyard, where the inhabiting ghosts take an oath to protect them. This book relates the many adventures that Bod has experienced and the friends that he has made both in and out of the graveyard.
First of all, let me just say that if you are looking for an audio version of this book, the author Neil Gaiman does an excellent reading that is poste ...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Lynne rated it really liked it

Shelves: middlegrade, own, fantasy, mystery

I have to say I love Neil Gaimans work and I think he is a genius. So it's no surprise that I reeally liked The Graveyard Book. I loved the concept and felt the magic and prose shone brightly with this fantastic middle grade book with characters who felt real, even though most of them were, in fact, ghosts. I loved it!

In the first pages there is a horrific slaying of a family where the toddler is the sole survivor. Oblivious to the eminent danger he is in, the two year old toddles out the door, ...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Emong rated it really liked it

Shelves: ebook

Nobody Owens grew up in a graveyard for the reason that his family was murdered by a guy name Jack. In the graveyard he can see and chatter with the dead people and there he found his new parents and a guardian. The inhabitants of the graveyard decided that he ought to stay until he is a grown-up and can handle to take care of himself alone, also the fact that there’s a killer looking for him. While staying in the graveyard compound he learned a lot of things that nobody can ever learn inside sc ...more

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