Customer Rating: 
Summary: Of course it's a great book, but check out the illustrations.
Comment: What I can say about Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book that hasn't already been said? By now, everyone pretty much knows that it's an homage to the Jungle Books and that most everything that Gaiman works on is excellent. The only real item of value to add is that it's like the Mowgli stories in the Jungle Books, not the Jungle Books in their entirety. I suspect that that's what most people think of when they think of "The Jungle Books", so no one should be much disappointed at the lack of a ghoulish Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.
So, with everyone understanding that it's good and all, it's worth buying and reading and well made (as many books these days are not), I'm going to stop talking about Neil's work right now.
Instead, I'm going to talk about Dave McKean.
Dave McKean illustrated this book and did so in a style the blends dark and domineering black pen with light and subtle watercolors (in grey, of course). At the beginning of the story, it's pretty heavy and the art overwhelms the text, but after that it's just a little illustration here and a little one there. Hilary Zarychy, aside from having a last name that I have no idea how to pronounce, did a wonderful job on the typesetting, so the text flows along with the art, showing that the two work together to create one hole, but (and this is VERY important) at no point does the text become difficult to read.
See, a lot of books these days are "illustrated" simply because certain types of books are supposed to be illustrated. However, when you have a book where the illustrations blend together with the story, it creates a whole that is remembered as story and images -- forming a solid marker in the memory that forever reminds one of the experience of reading the story. There are a few books that manage to blend the art and the story together this way, Catherine Coblentz's Blue Cat of Castle Town (Illustrated by Janice Holland and available online for free here), Ruth Stiles Gannett's My Father's Dragon (Illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannett and available online for free here) and many of Thornton Burgess's early books (Illustrated by Harrison Cady) come to mind. The Graveyard Book joins this small set of books that will always hold a place in my mind.
I open the book to a random page, 142 to be precise, and I see a small painted stone on a bed of leaves. The lines are simple but definite. The composition is straightforward and uncomplicated. However, I immediately remember the story, the characters, the fear and the sadness. I remember sitting in my brown recliner, reading by the yellow light of my halogen lamp, with a blanket over my legs and two cats sleeping on me. The room is silent and the day's concerns have slipped away as I wander through the life that is Bod's.
That's what illustrations are supposed to do. That's why this book is special beyond the writing.
Customer Rating:
Summary: one of the Gaiman's best, and that's sure saying something.
Comment: The Jungle Book but with a Graveyard instead of a Jungle. And that's really all I should have to say in recommendation. But, with Gaiman, there's always beautiful prose and gorgeous details (in description of the world of the graveyard, the epitaphs, the monsters and villains) that make his books more than just a great idea. Nobody Owens, the sole survivor after his family is murdered by a man Jack, is raised by the graveyard, living between the borders of life and death, just as Mowgli lived between civilization and the wilderness. Silas, my favorite character, his guardian, also lives in the borders. Nobody's childhood is spent in the world of the graveyard, with ghosts as teachers and playmates, stones and mausoleums as a playground. As he grows older, he must begin to make the transition into the world of the living, as well as face the dangers in that world. The characters are beautiful and fantastic in this thoroughly clever book, which is easily one of Gaiman's best. As someone who spent a lot of her childhood in a graveyard and still has an affinity for them, I love this book. Grade: A
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Pleasant read, but reliant on cleverness and short on substance
Comment:
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