Reviewed by Maxwell Folkman. Max is an English Education major at Maranatha Baptist University. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Synopsis and Background
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is a novel written for teens published in both Great Britain and America in 2008. The book won many awards, including both the American Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal given to British young adult novels, the first book to win both of these awards. The book was illustrated by the brilliant Chris Riddel winning a medal for his work. The Graveyard Book is based strongly on Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, with the graveyard substituting for the jungle. The parallels between the two include the timing, in which each chapter is set two years apart, with the protagonist growing in age and maturity as the novel progresses; and a similarity between the development of the protagonists of the group.
The Graveyard Book is set in a series of eight “episodes” that detail the life of Nobody “Bod” Owens, from the time he is a small baby through the rest of his teenage years. In the first chapter, which begins creepily with “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife,” the murder of Bod’s family by the wicked man Jack is detailed. Bod, who is only eighteen months old, wanders out of his house and into a graveyard, where he is adopted by the ghosts who inhabit the graveyard. The ghosts, along with Silas, a being who seems to be neither alive nor dead, give Bod his name and allow him to live in the graveyard with them. Near the end of the chapter, Mrs. Owens, Bod’s new adopted ghost mother sings him a hauntingly beautiful lullaby.
Chapter two begins with Bod as a young child, longing to leave the graveyard. His guardian Silas denies this request, stating that it is too dangerous. However, soon another living child wanders into the graveyard. Scarlett is a young girl who is lonely because her parents have divorced and she spends her time moving to different places with her mother. Bod befriends Scarlett, and they go exploring in the graveyard. They come across a tomb in which Bod has never entered. They walk down and find a monster called the Sleer, an unknown being who will haunt Bod later in the book.
Chapter three involves werewolves who call themselves the Hounds of God who help Bod in his adventures. They reveal a small amount about Silas and rescue Bod from some of his tormentors. Chapter four introduces a new character, Liza, who was executed for being a witch. Liza is Bod’s love interest for the next few chapters; however, at this point, Liza is a bit older than Bod. Liza longs for a headstone to mark her grave, a privilege she was denied because she was accused of witchcraft. After a brief interlude, in which the man Jack discusses his hunt for Bod and sends two assassins to kill him, whom Bod quickly outsmarts, Bod returns with a small stone with Liza’s initials and an epitaph scrawled across the top of it.
Chapter five is a rather unimportant chapter in which the living and the dead dance for one night, an event that has occurred for decades, but which the living do not remember. At the end, the dead refuse to discuss any of the events of the chapter with Bod. After chapter five, a brief interlude occurs in which the Jacks of All Trades discuss their plans to kill Bod. Chapter six details Bod’s short time at school, with Silas forbidding him to return because Bod had used the powers of the dead on two bullies at school. Bod disobeys and uses his powers again, this time to scare the bullies in their dreams. At the end of the chapter, Bod scuffles with the police, but Silas rescues him.
Chapter seven includes the climax of the story in which Scarlett returns, this time accompanied by her mother and her mother’s new boyfriend, Mr. Frost. Scarlett mentions Bod to Mr. Frost and introduces them. It soon becomes apparent that Mr. Frost is really the man Jack. The man Jack calls his accomplices, Jack be Nimble, Jack Ketch, and Jack Dandy to help him. Scarlett, Silas, and Bod battle the Jacks of all trades, defeating them when the Sleer sucks them into the wall and seemingly from this dimension. The book concludes in chapter eight with Bod leaving the graveyard to start a life among the living, his mother singing the beautiful lullaby once more.
Potential Issues
This book is surprisingly tame for a Gaiman book; however, issues are present. First, the idea of ghosts and witchcraft are present, but they are not graphic and are portrayed more humorously than anything else. No Satanism occurs in this book. Some very conservative families may have issues with this portrayal of ghosts and witches, but it is rather tame in the realm of the supernatural. The book is also a little bit violent, with entire families being murdered, Bod using his strong powers of the dead to frighten two bullies with violent images in their dreams, and the ghosts giving detailed descriptions of how they died. One more obvious issue is a brief homosexual theme. A character defends himself as not being gay. Another character, however, Jack Dandy, comes across as slightly homosexual, acting effeminately and dressing rather foppishly. However, homosexuality is not portrayed in a positive light at all in this book. Also, a few times the Lord’s name is used in vain and a few minor curse words are present in the novel.
Maturity Tasks
This novel includes many of the steps of maturity, giving the readers, through Bod, a way to deal with their adolescence.
Coming to Terms with His or Her Body
This element appears in the novel, though not in the traditional way. Several times in the novel, Bod wishes himself more like the ghosts. He asks why he is different from the ghosts and tries to do the same things that they do. Although he can do a few things that the ghosts can do, including invade people’s dreams and cause cold spots and fear, Bod is very human and cannot ever be an actual ghost while he is still alive. Eventually, Bod comes to terms with his being alive. This is handled well, as Bod comes to accept his body for what it is. I think that this is a relatively good role model for readers.
Discovering His or Her Gender Role in Culture
Bod is bestowed the idea of chivalry early, his ghost friends being from a time when men were very respectful of women. Since the ghosts lived in a time where people were chivalrous, they ensure that Bod is chivalrous. He is always kind to both Scarlett and Liza. His chivalry and kindness is most shown when he gets Liza the gravestone that she has always wanted. This is important because it teaches the reader how to be respectful of women.
Develop Relationships with People of the Same Age
Bod develops a good friendship with Scarlett when he is younger, a friendship that Scarlett remembers even when she is an adult. Bod has a little trouble with bullies when he is in school, but he eventually stands up to them. He almost becomes the bully himself, which is not a good role model. However, this idea is portrayed as negative and can be something that many adolescents struggle with. This book is good for teaching anti-bullying to teenagers.
Achieving Good Relationships with People of the Opposite Sex
There are two major female influences on Bod’s life besides his mother. Scarlett and Liza can both be thought of as love interests. Scarlett is his friend when he is little and is initially attracted to him as a young adult, but he still considers himself only a friend. Liza is considered as more of his love interest, moving from thinking he is a cute little boy to having romantic interest in him. She portrays this by saving him twice. Although trying to make it seem like something casual, she really did it because of her crush on the boy. Near the end of the book, Liza, realizing she has fallen for him, tries to distance herself slightly. Readers can learn a lot from this story in the way of dealing with friends that are girls and girlfriends. This is handled extremely well, as Bod does not ever even think about having inappropriate relations with either girls in the novel.
Growing Independent from One’s Parents
At the end of the novel, Bod must leave the graveyard and his adopted family to go out into the world. This extremely touching and beautiful scene portrays not only a good example of Bod leaving his parents on good terms, but also a good example of parents letting their children branch out. Older readers should strive to leave their parents on these good terms.
Gender interest/age level
This book is geared toward boys. The main character is a boy, and the theme of horror and ghosts is geared towards boys. However, girls would probably like to read this book also. Bod is somewhat emotional, and the book has definite romantic themes, making it an interest catcher for girls. I would put this book at the age level of fourteen to sixteen, but would make the caution that the book is a bit violent and that students with weak constitutions may not feel comfortable reading it. Although the writing is geared a little younger, some of the themes in the book are a little bit mature. A couple of “episodes” in the book may be suitable for a younger child to read, like the Danse Macabre episode or the Witch’s Tombstone episode. Since continuity is not necessarily important, I would suggest maybe giving a younger teenager these episodes, then give him the other, more mature episodes a bit later.
Recommendation
I definitely recommend this book to older teenagers as a pleasure book. The book does have some potential issues, but it is nothing I would not let a child of my own read. As far as teaching goes, I originally felt like I would not teach this book. I did not originally notice anything especially literary about it. However, after reading it again, I noticed that the poetry in the novel is extremely well written, and several good quotes are in the novel. I would actually consider teaching this to a classroom. If I did not have time to teach the whole book in the semester, I would definitely teach one of the more standalone chapters of the novel in order to at least introduce the novel to my students.
Teaching Strategies
If I were to teach this novel, I would probably have a few activities dealing with the historical characters in the novel. I would definitely teach some of the historical background of the ghosts.
I would also probably have the students make a timeline of Bod’s life, starting from his birth and going through teenage years.
I would let the students create their own ghost, picking a time period, a life span and a reason for death. They will then make a tombstone out of construction paper for their ghost
For a fun activity, I would have the students see who can make a mummy the fastest with the only people allowed to move being the person being mummified. This is a fun activity for kids and adolescents and provides an opportunity to get up and move around a little bit.
Resources and Research for Teaching the Novel
On googlesites.com, there is a site called Ghoul Gate that has many good teacher resources, including literary devices and historical events in the book and several games to use for the novel. Neil Gaiman’s own personal children’s website Mouse Circus has several critical reviews of the novel, a video description of the novel, and a Q&A section with the author. Novelinks has a page for the Graveyard Book with several strategies for teaching and teaching reading. This website approaches the novel creatively and gives many fun activities to spark creativity in the students. Scholastic.com has a section about The Graveyard Book. It has Lexile levels, age interest guides, and brief biographical works. All of these would be helpful resources in teaching the novel to teenagers.
Strategies for Teaching Reading
Although the vocabulary is not especially advanced in this book, a vocabulary journal could be kept in which the students write down words that they do not know and look up the definition in the dictionary. Ten to fifteen words would probably suffice. This will help the students build their vocabulary. Another possible journal idea for teaching reading would be an anticipation and revelation journal. This novel contains some twists and turns that can throw the student off. The students could keep a journal in which, at the beginning of each chapter, they write down what they expect the chapter to be about, then as their anticipation is either confirmed or refuted, write that down underneath it. This will help students watch specific wording and be able to anticipate events based on earlier happenings and the titles of each chapter. One final way that a teacher could teach reading with this novel would be to use a cloze procedure in which the student will get a page in the middle of the book in which every seventh word is a blank. The students, based on the information that they acquired before, will fill in the blanks with the word that the author used. This will happen several times throughout the teaching of this novel, and the students will be graded on the accuracy of the word based on the class average.
Works Cited
Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book. New York: HarperCollins, 2008. Print.
Gaiman, Neil. Mr. Bobo's Remarkable Mouse Circus. Harper Collins, n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
The Ghoul Gate. Maryska Connoly Brown. Google Sites: June 2012.
"The Graveyard Book." Scholastic: Teachers. Scholastic, 2015 Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
Wiki. Novelinks: The Graveyard Book. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.
