The Graveyard Book

Gaiman, Neil.  The Graveyard Book.

Have you ever wandered in a cemetery and felt the peacefulness of the place.  They used to creep me out, but in the last ten years or so they make me feel at peace.  Can you imagine living there?  I must admit being in one at night might make my skin crawl, but only because I would be alone with no one else there.  I have felt so much in tune with the peacefulness of being with my ancestors, listening for their voices calling to me that I have taken it a step further.   I have even had a picnic with my ancestors in a graveyard.

This book was a fantastic book to read.  I couldn't put it down the first or second or third time I read it.  Case scenerio:  Imagine yourself as a energetic two year old who was awakened in the middle of the night by a sound that you couldn't recognize.  Of course, as a two year old anything can awaken you and maybe you were scared and maybe you weren't.  What would you do?  Would you lay there and wonder what it was, or would you go and explore?  This youngster did just that, he went looking for what it was that awakened him.  Before he could find anything else, he found the front door open and wandered out.  This little boy wandered as fast as his little feet could take him up the hill to the fenced in graveyard.  He was small enough to get through the spokes in the fence.  He felt a presence or two with him there.  That presence hid him from the vicious killer who had just murdered the rest of his family.  This was the beginning of the rest of his life; a life uncertain of what would happen to him.  The presence was in the form of ghosts or spirits of people who were buried there.  Mr. & Mrs. Owens took to the young boy and raised him, in whatever way they could.  They called him Nobody Owens, "Bod" for short.

The problem became in the way of what to feed the boy.  The only person who could leave the graveyard was a non-resident by the name of Silas.  Silas wasn't dead, but he might as well have been.   He slept in the graveyard during the day and did his venturing during the evening and nighttime hours.  During this time he would go out for food for the boy.  It became a routine to feed, clothe, and educate the young one.  He would be safe there until such a time as he became old enough to take care of himself or the killer was no longer in the picture.  I must have been a strange life for Bod.

I felt really scared for this tiny little boy who just couldn't stay in his crib.  The best thing he did was go to the cemetery for there he found a family and protector. His adventures take him to all parts of the cemetery and it's inhabitants.  Things he would learn would be useful to him whenever the need arose to help save himself from the killer.  See if you can figure out what happens to Bod.  Read this delicious murder mystery and find out. I can attune to this book because I love to find cemeteries and old graves but not necessarily at night.  I like to be by myself there.