The Graveyard Book
By Neil Gaiman
Gaiman, N., & McKean, D. (2008). The Graveyard Book . New York: Harpercollins Publishing.
Readability Lexile: 820L
Grade Level Equivalent: 5.4
Genre: Fantasy
The Graveyard Book is the life and adventures of Nobody Owens. Nobody Owens' family was murdered when he was just a toddler by The Man Jack. From that day forward he was adopted and raised by a family of ghosts, and thus given "The Freedom of the Graveyard". Each chapter ages "Bod" about two years, and contains another dangerous adventure in the graveyard life of Nobody Owens.
The Graveyard Book is very dark, and I would say pretty difficult for anyone K-6 to read, especially in school. The book is very abstract, and contains very adult themes such as murder, sexual orientation etc. There were words that I even had to look up. I would recommend this book only to students who I thought could handle the themes, and would enjoy fantasy books. It would help their vocabulary development as there are many complex words. This book could also help in social development. Nobody Owens is a character that I think many students could relate to; he has a lot of hardship in his life just as many students in K-6 classrooms. He is not able to make many human friends because the only beings surrounding him are ghosts. This could bring up conversations about socialization, culture, being lonely etc.
This book forces the reader to think outside of the box, and to dig deep and find your inner dark side. This is not a book that I would choose to read in the classroom. It is, though, a book that I would recommend for certain students to read on their own as it is one that I really enjoyed.
This book could easily be used for many writing assignments. It reminds me a lot of The Jungle Book; a child being raised by animals, only in this case it is ghosts. Students could write about what it would be like to be raised by anyone who is not their parents. They could try to put themselves in the shoes of Nobody Owens, and imagine how it would feel to live in a graveyard.
The Graveyard Book is very dark, and I would say pretty difficult for anyone K-6 to read, especially in school. The book is very abstract, and contains very adult themes such as murder, sexual orientation etc. There were words that I even had to look up. I would recommend this book only to students who I thought could handle the themes, and would enjoy fantasy books. It would help their vocabulary development as there are many complex words. This book could also help in social development. Nobody Owens is a character that I think many students could relate to; he has a lot of hardship in his life just as many students in K-6 classrooms. He is not able to make many human friends because the only beings surrounding him are ghosts. This could bring up conversations about socialization, culture, being lonely etc.
This book forces the reader to think outside of the box, and to dig deep and find your inner dark side. This is not a book that I would choose to read in the classroom. It is, though, a book that I would recommend for certain students to read on their own as it is one that I really enjoyed.
This book could easily be used for many writing assignments. It reminds me a lot of The Jungle Book; a child being raised by animals, only in this case it is ghosts. Students could write about what it would be like to be raised by anyone who is not their parents. They could try to put themselves in the shoes of Nobody Owens, and imagine how it would feel to live in a graveyard.
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