Scarlett and Bod become friends and play on the grounds. When he’s nearly five, he meets Scarlett Perkins, a girl who visits the park-like cemetery with her mother on sunny days. Silas, who can travel beyond the graveyard, brings food, books, and toys for Nobody-“Bod”-and the other ghosts teach him what they know of life.

The graveyard denizens agree at once that their community will protect and raise the boy. It’s an unusual request, and the debate continues for hours until the Lady on the Grey, a ghostly goddess on horseback, arrives and suggests they exercise charity. The ghosts hold a group meeting the Owenses offer to be the boy’s parents, and Silas volunteers to be his guardian. A tall, mysterious, shadowy person, Silas, meets man Jack and makes him forget he saw the boy in the graveyard. Owens and her husband agree to watch over the toddler.

The murdered family’s ghosts show up and beg her to protect the boy from the assassin, who has followed the lad’s scent up to the cemetery. The boy arrives at a graveyard at the top of a hill, where the ghost of a long-dead woman, Mrs. He searches for the fourth family member, a toddler, but the little boy has wandered off into the night. Illustrated by Dave McKean, the novel’s HarperCollins ebook edition forms the basis for this study guide.Īn assassin named “man Jack” enters a house at night and uses a knife to kill a man, his wife, and their daughter. The Graveyard Book is in development as a motion picture. He has written and co-written multiple stage plays, and many of his works have been adapted for theatre and film, including the animated feature Coraline. His works include Neverwhere, American Gods, M Is for Magic, and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish. It also garnered a Hugo Award for science fiction or fantasy and received several other honors.Īuthor Gaiman has published nearly three dozen books for young readers and adults. It won the Newbery and Carnegie medals for best children’s book, the first time a work has received both awards. Published in 2008, this fantasy-adventure novel for middle-grade and young-adult readers became a #1 New York Times best seller.

Murder mysteries neil gaiman explained