The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
So very Neil Gaiman, but fun for the middle-grade kids. “Cemetary Gates” by the Smiths would be the perfect soundtrack…Poppy and sweet, with macabre and Victorian undertones. Nobody (Bod) Owens has been raised by loving ghosts in a crumbling graveyard. As he grows, he begins to piece together the mystery of his past. However, this is where the book is sorely lacking. The characters and setting are rich and fun, but the underlying story and motives are totally undeveloped. Upon finishing, I had many unanswered questions, but I enjoyed the ride, so I guess I can’t complain too much. I’m sure kids (even those pesky boys) would have fun with it, and it has much more mainstream appeal than some of the other recent Newbery Award winners that kids often find boring. Oh well…After being impressed with the visual magic of “Coraline”, I think that this could potentially be an awesome movie, at the very least, and hopefully inspire some of those young reluctant readers to pick up a darn book.


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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.