Hardcover, 312 pages
English language
Published Nov. 21, 2008 by HarperCollins Pub..
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own.
I love Neil's style in this book and I am happy that I picked this one up to get back into reading.
I forgot how much I liked this book. Gaiman claims it is inspired by the Jungle Book, but to me it felt more like Kidnapped, but improved.
The most remarkable thing (other than me sitting down and reading a book on paper for once), was the complete lack of cynicism. That is not a sure thing with Gaiman.
I'd read the original a long time back, and had forgotten how beautiful and haunting the prose was.
A sad and tender book about a boy growing in a graveyard.
[guessing at the star rating / mining my old FB notes now that they are almost impossible to find]
what at thoroughly charming book! i cannot say enough wonderful things about this allegory of childhood itself... there's a nolatalgia here for adults, and a delicious fear for older children, and a cohesive plot that uses most, if not all, the supposed tangents that come along - fierce and rob and i all loved it. (pepper's up next to listen to it)
oh yes - do it as an audiobook. it's voiced by the author himself and he captures the characters are perfectly as he conceived them
once again - loving the young adult genre
