The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

A Brief Summary

The Graveyard Book opens with the murder of a family in their own hom and a few dark illustrations to supplement the opening feelings of dread and danger. Someone called “the man Jack” is creeping around the home of the family that he has just slaughtered, looking for one wayward member that he is missing, a baby boy. The first chapter follows the baby as he crawls from the house where his family is killed and wanders uphill to the local graveyard, with the man Jack following the trail soon after. Once at the graveyard, he is rescued from certain death by the spirits who inhabit the place, two of which take him in as their son. They give him the name Nobody and he adopts the family name Owens, officially falling under the protection of the graveyard and its residents.

After the tense opening, the narrative focuses on Nobody as he grows up in the graveyard and on how the ghosts who live there shape his development. The reader watches as he becomes a small child, then a boy, and finally to the point where he is almost a young man. Along the way he develops odd powers, meets with the strange and varied entities of the graves, and learns all the usual things that one would expect a child of his age to be learning, and some things that most would not. Through it all, Nobody begins to learn of the man Jack and the secret behind his attempted murder. It all leads to a thrilling ending that surprises even astute readers.

Thematic Elements

Much like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, there are elements of a coming of age story in The Graveyard Book, but they are downplayed compared to the supernatural occurrences and the theme of family and the bonds that relations create with one another. Nobody Owens hardly lives a normal life, but it can be said that he is well cared for by his extended (and deceased) family. There is also a theme of mystery and conspiracy in the novel, though it is understandably juvenile by comparison to most texts that adult readers would pick up.

Analysis

The Graveyard Book is a suitable book for middle school students who are looking for an exciting read, which the quality assurance that comes from knowing that Neil Gaiman was responsible for the story. It works well as a way to get students interested in spooks and spells into reading and can serve as a fun read around the Halloween season. Otherwise, there is not too much in here that would challenge readers.

A Little Something More

If a teacher is interested in making use of those book in his or her classroom, then I suggest that they do so as part of a larger activity where students are allowed to select a book for themselves. There are not many challenging themes in this book, which makes it a good pick for reluctant readers, and the art helps to add to the reader's imagination. Those teachers looking to connect it to a larger unit should focus on the elements of family represented in the text, looking to that fact that Nobody does not view his ghostly relations to be unusual at all. Connections could be made to families throughout history who have been judged as non-standard, such as mixed race couples and those who are homosexual.