Reading Order
The Graveyard Book Reading Order
Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book (2008) is his most celebrated children's novel — Nobody 'Bod' Owens, raised by ghosts in a graveyard after his family is murdered by the man Jack, growing up among the dead and learning to live. The novel won the Newbery Medal (2009) and the Carnegie Medal (2010), making Gaiman the first author to win both prizes for the same book. Gaiman wrote it as a deliberate homage to Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, replacing the jungle with a graveyard and the animals with ghosts. It is the best entry point to Gaiman's work and one of the finest children's fantasy novels of the last twenty years.
Where to start
The Graveyard Book
Complete The Graveyard Book Book List
- 1Buy
The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman·2008·The complete standalone novel — illustrated by Dave McKean in the original edition, by Chris Riddell in subsequent UK editions. Newbery and Carnegie Medal winner, essential Gaiman. - 2Buy
Coraline
Neil Gaiman·2002·The companion children's novel — Coraline discovering the Other Mother behind the small door, Gaiman's other children's horror fantasy, darker and more concentrated than The Graveyard Book. - 3Buy
Neverwhere
Neil Gaiman·1996·The adult Gaiman companion — Richard Mayhew in London Below, the same interest in hidden worlds and chosen families that drives The Graveyard Book in an adult urban fantasy form.
The Graveyard Book — Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Graveyard Book appropriate for children?
The Graveyard Book is marketed as a children's novel and is appropriate for readers from about age 9 or 10, though it begins with the murder of a family (shown from a distance) and contains genuine moments of menace and horror. Gaiman has said he waited many years before feeling capable of writing it because the premise — a child raised by ghosts — required him to treat the subject of death seriously while keeping the book accessible to young readers. It is considered one of the finest dark children's fantasies in the language and is enjoyed equally by adults.
Is The Graveyard Book related to any other Gaiman books?
The Graveyard Book is a standalone novel. It shares its graveyard setting with elements of The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013) and its concern with death and the afterlife with Gaiman's broader work, but no characters or plot elements connect it to other Gaiman novels. Silas, Bod's guardian who is neither living nor dead, has been interpreted by many readers as a vampire, though Gaiman has been deliberately ambiguous about this.
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