Favorite Book of the Year So Far: The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

If you like fantasy even a little bit, you  need to read this book, and if you have kids over the age of 9 or 10, they need to read it, too. (Neil won the Newberry Award for it this year.)

This is the story of Nobody Owens, a boy who is taken in as a baby, after the murder of his parents and sister, by the inhabitants of a graveyard, who don't let the fact they they are dead get in the way of their charity. Bod, as he is called, walks the line between the living and the dead while still being a real, living boy. This book does not talk down to children who may be reading it. It starts with a murder and it acknowledges danger, in the same way that the best of young adult fiction has since the days of Huckleberry Finn or Robinson Crusoe, The Jungle Book or Treasure Island. This book deserves its place among these great books, and like those books, will appeal to adults as well as to children.

Bod and his ghostly family and friends will enthrall, enchant and touch you. This is a ripping adventure yarn as well, and sure to get your heart racing in places.

This book made me laugh, cry, and just revel in the story. I finished the 305 pages in two days, and I have very limited reading time.

I give this book 10 stars. Do yourself a favor. Read The Graveyard Book, and then buy it for any kids you know.