The Graveyard Book

Author: Neil Gaiman

AR Level: 5.1 (10 points)

Lexile: 820

A Brief Word From Your Teacher: The Graveyard Book tells the story of a boy named Nobody Owens, Bod for short.  When he was a baby his family was murdered, but he managed to escape.  He is then raised in the local Graveyard by ghosts.  He makes friends in the graveyard and finds himself in many adventures, however he is in danger.  If he leaves the graveyard he is at risk of being murdered by the man Jack, the man who murdered his family and is still looking for Bod after all of this time.

You can obviously tell from the title and description, this book is a little dark.  Sensitive kids who easily scare should probably stay away from this book, but kids around 5th and 6th grade who enjoy the dark side will like this (kids who enjoy this book will probably be future Tim Burton fans).  I liked this book, but did not love it.  My sister loved this book and recommended it to me last year.  I started reading it back then, but stopped because I was having a hard time getting into it because it is a little slow.  I recently tried to read it again, and although I got through it all this time, I once again had a hard time getting into it.  It's a matter of personal taste.  This is a Newberry Award winner, so obviously somebody loved it :)

Grade: B