The Graveyard Book

A family is murdered in their home but by the time the murderer gets to the baby's crib, the baby has crawled out of it, down the steep stairs, out the door, and disappeared! The murderer, Jack, follows his scent out of the house and down the street to the graveyard on the hill.

            The baby has managed to squeeze in to the locked cemetery where the ghosts of Mr and Mrs Owens have found him, and, as Jack rattles the gate to try to get to him in the graveyard, the newly murdered mother's ghost begs the Owens to save him.

This situation causes quite a stir in the graveyard; can a human boy be raised by ghosts?

            The cemetery council holds a meeting to decide if this is possible. As long as the shadowy Silas, who is neither dead nor alive, and who is able to leave the graveyard to gather food and supplies for the growing boy, commits to being the boy's guardian, the baby will be allowed to stay. It probably helps that the Lady on the Grey, whose skirt and shawl appears to have been spun from cobwebs, and who we all encounter at the end of our days, makes an unexpected appearance, cryptically quoting a proverb about charity. At this time, the baby is named “Nobody,” to preserve his anonymity and protect him from the man Jack.

            As the years go by, Bod grows up, studying his lessons first with Silas, including the art of “fading,” and later going away to boarding school. We are introduced to his friends and companions,  which include a witch and a werewolf. He makes friends with Scarlett, a girl who visits the graveyard with her parents sometimes.

            But most of the emphasis is on the graveyard and its inhabitants. As we get to know Bod, his guardian, his parents, and the assorted residents of the graveyard, from different time periods dating as far back as the ancient Roman occupation, we come to appreciate the assorted families, with all their quirks and oddities, that we all are blessed with.

This book, surprisingly, is  not all action and adventure

There is one chapter describing a rather fantastic journey through the depths of the crypts beneath the graveyard , and out into a desert landscape of tall cliffs with rock houses on top and statues sticking straight out of the cliff faces. Here, the ghouls chase Bod and his companions who swing on the statues, and the night-gaunts drop out of the sky trying to snatch them up. Surprisingly, this episode almost seems out of place in this quiet tribute to home and family and the shades that surround us.

            I may make some enemies here, but what an engaging read! I realize this will not be everyone's “cup of tea,” but I enjoyed it immensely. I would have loved it just as much as a child. I liked thinking and reading about ghosts and the odder works of Joan Aiken, Richard Peck, and Sid Fleischman were among my favorites. Later, I loved Peter S Beagle, whose A Fine and Private Place is also set in a cemetery.

            My favorite chapter is probably Danse Macabre, describing a street festival of dancing and celebration, where the inhabitants of the graveyard and the inhabitants of the town mingle in a dance, and everyone has a turn dancing with death, the Lady on the Grey.

But, I repeat, this book will not be for everyone!

           May I suggest, if you have content concerns for this one, read just the first chapter for yourself. That's the most shocking. After this first grim and macabre chapter, there is nothing else quite like it in the book.

Content Considerations:

Violence: a family is murdered with a knife

Objectionable elements: one use of stupid, the ghouls are described as using “foul language” but the words are unspecified.

A conversation is related in which Bod asks about suicide, and Silas explains it to him, stating that people are not usually happier afterward, because you can't get away from yourself.

Bod's witch friend describes her dunking “trial” which, of course, results in her death. She admits that she cursed the townspeople after that, and sent them a carpet from London-town that was filled with plague. She later speaks a spell of protection over Bod.

Bod is in the habit of finding coins in the grass of the graveyard, especially in spots where courting couples have gone to “cuddle and snuggle and kiss and roll about.”

Ghouls live in one of the graves in the graveyard. The Indigo Man (sounds like something from Scooby Doo) appears in the crypt, which also contains an altar with offerings left on it. This is also where the snake-like Sleer lives who is waiting for his “master.”