Reading - The Graveyard Book

Last week, I read Neil Gaiman's latest young adult novel The Graveyard Book, which won The Newbury medal and a gazillion other well-deserved awards upon its release. I received this book as a birthday present and was absolutely delighted with it. I was given the adult UK edition - as with the Harry Potter series, The Graveyard Book was released in two separate editions in the UK. I saw the children's edition yesterday at Forbidden Planet and I have to say, I like the illustrations in mine better.

Gaiman says the idea for the book came when he saw his then four-or-five year old* son ride his bicycle in a graveyard. He thought it would be great to write a book just like Kipling's The Jungle Book, but with a boy raised in a graveyard instead. So The Graveyard Book tells the story of Nobody Owens, a boy who is raised by ghosts in a graveyard after his parents' murder.

I found it a very interesting book to read because of the way it is timed. Each chapter takes place roughly two years after its predecessor, meaning that we see slices of Bod's life, when he is one and a half, four, six, eight, etc... I really admired the way Gaiman made his growing protagonist so realistic because, despite my experience working with children and teenagers, I'm not very aware of what children do, what they are preoccupied with at which age. Of course, it helps that Gaiman has three children and that he clearly doesn't underestimate his young readers' intelligence or capacity to deal with difficult topics.

Naturally, because it is Neil and I'm such a fangirl and especially because he says very smart things about everything, I listened to a number of interview he gave about The Graveyard Book. One thing he said** about writing for children as opposed to writing for adults fascinated me - when he writes a book for adults, he expects the reader to read through the good bits, the action and the dialogue and maybe skim through the description and then put the book on a shelf. However, when he writes for children, he always keeps in mind the fact that the reader is going to read every word closely and question how interesting the story is all along. He also knows that if a child has enjoyed a book, they are very likely to read it again next month and again next year, because that's what we do when we love books as children.***

As a grown-up (sort of), I really enjoyed this book and I could also tell that here is a book I would have really enjoyed as a kid. Had this been written when I was ten, it would have had pride of place on my bookshelf and I would probably have re-read it quite regularly, as Gaiman rightly assumes avid younger readers do. And I know that in a few years time, I'll be proud to give that book to my niece. After all, I need to maintain my status as Auntie Claire, who lives in London like Peter Pan and gives cool gifts.

*I can't remember precisely how old Gaiman said his son was at the time. I'm sure he does though.
**Please forgive me for my not-so-good paraphrasing, I forgot to save the quote at the time and can't find the interview again.
***If I hadn't been completely in love with this man's brain before, this would have done it.