{"id":1153,"date":"2009-05-24T22:38:54","date_gmt":"2009-05-25T03:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=1153"},"modified":"2021-05-30T21:40:52","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T01:40:52","slug":"the-graveyard-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1153","title":{"rendered":"The Graveyard Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Graveyard Book<\/a><\/em> (2008) Neil Gaiman<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Nobody Owens lives in a graveyard.<\/p>\n

I’ve known this for quite awhile. You see, I read Neil Gaiman’s blog, and he’d been talking about The Graveyard Book<\/em> long before he every got around to writing it. So I knew there would one day be a book about a boy who grew up in a graveyard and was raised by ghosts. <\/p>\n

I even knew the story came about because his son used to play in a graveyard next to their home when he (the son) was a toddler. So why didn’t I order the book when it first came out? No idea. Then I knew it was up for the Newbury award, and then I knew it had won, and that Stephen Colbert had mocked it, and then Neil Gaiman had gone on the Colbert Report and allowed Stephen Colbert to mock him in person about his book. And still I didn’t order the book.<\/p>\n

Finally, I broke down and ordered The Graveyard Book<\/em>. The almost immediately I read it.<\/p>\n

Now I will admit one thing. For some reason I thought The Graveyard Book<\/em> was more like Wolves in the Walls<\/em> instead of Coraline<\/em>. Not that I expected it to be anything like those books particularly. I mean the age groups–I thought it was for a younger age group.<\/p>\n

Yes. I’d seen the cover. But don’t forget, I love and own The Boy Who Drew Cats<\/em> and The Spider and the Fly<\/em><\/a> (and have given both as gifts to young friends.) So I have a very different idea of “age appropriate” than most other people. (I clearly remember being a child, and loved reading the story of “The Boy Who Drew Cats” because the image of the cats fangs dripping with blood was awesome. And really, a lot of the best books for kids are quite morbid. Which is why they’re so good.)<\/p>\n

Yes, the book starts with a killer with a knife. Yes, there are scary bits. Bit they’re awesome scary bits–just what should appeal to kids. After all, the best children’s books always have orphans as the main characters–how else could a kid have exciting and terrible adventures? If you have a young person in your life, don’t hesitate to get them The Graveyard Book<\/em>. It’s just the right kind of book to appeal to kids with gruesome and scary and a boy who is brave even when it would be better for him not to be brave.
\nRating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Graveyard Book (2008) Neil Gaiman Nobody Owens lives in a graveyard. I’ve known this for quite awhile. You see, I read Neil Gaiman’s blog, and he’d been talking about The Graveyard Book long before he every got around to writing it. So I knew there would one day be a book about a boy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,2,3,291],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-1153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-10","category-fantasy","category-kids","category-paper","tag-neil-gaiman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-iB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4134,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4134","url_meta":{"origin":1153,"position":0},"title":"Books for Kids: Part III","author":"Michelle","date":"October 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are books for middle grade readers and older kids. A lot of these I can recommend for adult readers, they're really very good (and with online ordering, you don't have to skulk into the kids section, feeling like a creep who doesn't belong). Part I - Toddlers and Pre-Schoolers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Kids"","block_context":{"text":"Kids","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/kids"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/The-Old-Man-Mad-About-Drawing.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":135,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/135","url_meta":{"origin":1153,"position":1},"title":"Anansi Boys","author":"Michelle","date":"October 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Anansi Boys (2005) Neil Gaiman All summer I went back and forth over whether I was going to get Neil Gaiman's new book Anansi Boys in hardback, or wait until it came out in paperback. On one hand, I greatly prefer paperback books--they're smaller and lighter. On the other hand,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Anansi_Boys.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":335,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/335","url_meta":{"origin":1153,"position":2},"title":"Mr. Punch","author":"Michelle","date":"December 31, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Mr. Punch (1994) Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean I received Mr. Punch for Christmas. It's been on my Wish List for a couple of years now, but I've never purchased it for myself, because (I'm sorry to say) I'm not that fond of Dave McKean's artwork. I can understand why\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Graphic Novels"","block_context":{"text":"Graphic Novels","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/graphic-novels"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mr Punch","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/mr_punch.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":529,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/529","url_meta":{"origin":1153,"position":3},"title":"The Dream Hunters","author":"Michelle","date":"March 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Sandman: The Dream Hunters (1999) Neil Gaiman & Yoshitaka Amano I was feeling glum last night, so I reread Neil Gaiman & Yoshitaka Amano's The Dream Hunters. This is a comic book for people who say they don't like comic books, and if you haven't read it before, you can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/Sandman-Dream-Hunters.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4506,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4506","url_meta":{"origin":1153,"position":4},"title":"The Monarch of the Glen","author":"Michelle","date":"March 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Monarch of the Glen (2004) Neil Gaiman The Monarch of the Glen appeared first in Legends II (2004) edited by Robert Silverberg, and then in Gaiman's own short story collection Fragile Things. It is the story of Shadow, as he is wandering the world following the events in American\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"the -monarch-of-the-glen","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/the-monarch-of-the-glen.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":50,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/50","url_meta":{"origin":1153,"position":5},"title":"American Gods","author":"Michelle","date":"January 9, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"American Gods (2001) Neil Gaiman Sometimes, you just need to read something that you've read before and loved. After reading a bunch of new fantasy it was time to re-read Neil Gaiman's American Gods. In some ways, American Gods is the perfect novel for me; It combines mythology and folklore,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/American-Gods.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}