One of the new books that was donated through our Pember Angel campaign in December was Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. It was announced yesterday that the book won the Newbery Award for excellence in children’s literature.
The story is a takeoff of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, with an orphaned boy being adopted by the inhabitants of a graveyard instead of a panther and a bear.
I haven’t had a chance to read it yet but all signs point to it being a spooky book for older children. There are thousands of internet articles and reviews if you do a search for the book. It had already been on best books lists for 2008 and, since being named an award winner, it has risen to a number five rank on Barnes and Noble and has the number six spot on Amazon.
The really cool thing, though, is that while Gaiman was on tour promoting the book shortly after it came out, he read a chapter each night of the tour. The reading was videotaped and all eight chapters are available online at The Official Neil Gaiman Website for Young Readers.
The book is shelved with the Young Adult “new” books.