The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

After just reading Sounder for my Newbery project and really not liking it, it was such a pleasant experience to read The Graveyard Book and to look forward to coming back to it every time I had to put it down. I am surprised that I hadn't heard more about this book (although maybe I would have if I had been reading middle-grade books when this came out 13 years ago) and I think I would have loved this as a child. I would definitely recommend this for my boys. 

This book is about a live boy who is raised in a graveyard by the ghosts who live there. Just that once sentence sounds macabre and creepy, but this book has such a sweet feeling and definitely gives a sense of coziness and contentment throughout most of it. The boy is named Nobody and called Bod--and Bod grows up wanting to know who he is and why he lives there, and as he slowly learns and decides he wants to avenge his family, he has to learn how to protect himself and his home before he can go out into the world. I thought the ending was so bittersweet, when he leaves and has to say good-bye to all of his ghost friends and family, and they have to say good-bye to him and watch him go. In the interview in the back, Gaiman talks about how he had to learn how to parent and how to help his children go off and leave, and that was what he had to learn in order to write this book. 

The only thing I didn't like about this book was the beginning, when the murderer is at the house and kills Bod's parents and sister--it was too dark and creepy and sad for me. I guess it was a lot like the beginning of Harry Potter, but much more graphic and disturbing to have it described in front of you. But that didn't match the rest of the book.