Promotional Information

Awarded Best Novel at the 2010 SFX Sci-Fi Awards An astonishingly original blend of fantasy, humour, ghost story and family drama Eight chapters, many dead people and one live boy comprise this original, funny and gripping story

About the Author

Neil Gaiman is the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of Coraline and Stardust, both of which are major motion films. Neil also writes screenplays for other people's films as well as books for adults and picture books for younger readers. Neil is British and lives in the USA. He travels extensively promoting his books.

Reviews

'Thrilling, elegant and joyously macabre. You will love it to death' Holly Black author of The Spiderwick Chronicles 'This brief, dark, savoury adventure deserves to become a modern classic of children's writing' Independent 'Suspenseful, well-told and touching' The Sunday Times 'One of the joys of reading Gaiman is how he subverts our expectations of magic, horror, fantasy and the mundane' The Times

'Thrilling, elegant and joyously macabre. You will love it to death' Holly Black author of The Spiderwick Chronicles 'This brief, dark, savoury adventure deserves to become a modern classic of children's writing' Independent 'Suspenseful, well-told and touching' The Sunday Times 'One of the joys of reading Gaiman is how he subverts our expectations of magic, horror, fantasy and the mundane' The Times

Gr 5-8-"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." So begins the tale of Nobody Owens, a child raised in a graveyard by ghosts. The man Jack, a member of an elite and despicable organization, is sent to slit the throats of an entire family. As he prepares to finish off the last and most important family member, he is enraged to discover that the baby boy has eluded him by climbing from his crib and going out the door. The youngster toddles to a nearby graveyard, where the ghostly inhabitants take him in. Little Nobody (Bod) flourishes in the graveyard, a place alive with adventure and mystery. But he longs to enter the world of the living, a place where danger, and the man Jack, await. What a wicked delight to hear this inventive, sinister story (HarperCollins, 2008) read by multi-talented author Neil Gaiman. His voice ranges from silky to gravelly and gruff to sharp-edged. Those who enjoyed Gaiman's Coraline (HarperCollins, 2002) will be eager to hear his inspired reading of this novel. Winner of the 2009 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Produciton, This captivating production makes the story accessible to younger students as well as reluctant readers.-Lisa Hubler, Memorial Junior High School, South Euclid, OH Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

A baby survives the killing of his family by a mysterious assassin. He crawls to a nearby graveyard and is adopted by the assortment of spooks who occupy the place, soon to include his own recently murdered parents. There he is christened with a new name: Nobody, or Bod for short. Under the watchful tutelage of the dead, Bod learns reading, writing, history, and a few other useful skills-haunting and "disapparating" [disappearing from a location and reappearing in another]. Why It Is a Best: An elegant combination of Gaiman's masterly storytelling and McKean's lovely drawings, this book also works as a series of independent but connected short stories set two years apart, following Bod from age two to 16. Why It Is for Us: In interviews, Gaiman has said that this book took him years to write, and it was worth the wait. Imagine Kipling's The Jungle Book set among a forest of graves. A complete recording of Gaiman reading the book is available on his web site; see also LJ's video with the author from BEA 2008.-Angelina Benedetti, King Cty. Lib. Syst., WA Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.