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| Perma-Bound Edition ©2008 | -- |
| Publisher's Hardcover ©2008 | -- |
| Paperback ©2015 | -- |
Series and Publisher: Graveyard Book: Graphic Novel
Dead. Comic books, strips, etc. Juvenile fiction.
Cemeteries. Comic books, strips, etc. Juvenile fiction.
Orphans. Comic books, strips, etc. Juvenile fiction.
Dead. Comic books, strips, etc. Fiction.
Cemeteries. Comic books, strips, etc. Fiction.
Orphans. Comic books, strips, etc. Fiction.
Russell is a brave man. He was willing to cut the very first sentence of Gaiman's Newbery-winning novel, even though it's one of the most memorable lines in children's literature: "There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." By cutting out most of the descriptive text in this first of a two-part adaptation, Russell calls attention to the drama and wit of the language in each sentence. His graphic storytelling is faster-paced than the original book, but it's always faithful, and a few readers may even prefer this version. Though he shares illustration duties with a team of graphic-novel luminaries—every artist gets a favorite monster or creature to draw—Russell's fans will recognize his elegant, distinctive layouts even in the chapters he didn't illustrate himself. The pictures also clarify one plot point. The original book was amusingly coy about whether a character named Silas was a vampire, but here he's given the full Bela Lugosi treatment, and it's beautiful. In Kevin Nowlan's drawings, he has impossibly high cheekbones and a face like pale stone. One scene has even more impact than in the original: Ghosts join hands with the living and begin to dance, and readers see every dancer in the square. The real achievement of this adaptation is that readers will want to jump back to the novel and then leap back again, time after time. (Graphic adaptation. 8-12)
Horn Book (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)Also illustrated by P. Craig Russell, Kevin Nowlan, and Galen Showman. Gaiman's 2008 Newbery and Carnegie Medalwinning coming-of-age tale of Nobody "Bod" Owens, a living boy raised by ghosts, is skillfully adapted here to graphic-novel format. Communication of plot and characterization is balanced among narration, speech bubbles, and art in dynamically paced panels. The detailed illustrations--by a range of established comics artists--maintain a consistent style.
Voice of Youth Advocates (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)Astounding, transfixing, sublime, and beautifulà.just a few words to describe this wonderful graphic novel adaptation of the second half of Gaiman's The Graveyard Book (HarperCollins, 2008/VOYA August 2008).á The narrative picks up around chapter 6, after Bod leaves the graveyard and enrolls in school, an endeavor that presents more risks than benefits.áReaders see the reemergence of Jack Frost, who is drawn perfectly with an innocent exterior that hints at the evil within. áThe most intriguing artistic depiction is the Sleer, the mysterious presence looking for the return of its master, which is drawn as smoke carrying the words it utters.á The final scene, which portrays the defeat of Jack, is frightening but not violent and will amaze readers and ignite the imagination.áRussell and his team of illustrators continue to do this amazing story justice with images that lead readers down a path into Bod's dark and magical graveyard world.á Gaiman has the ability to weave beauty and intrigue into a story that has a strong potential to frighten.á Russell matches this with his illustrations.ááYounger readers may find some of the images a bit disturbing but not to the point of giving nightmares.á Consider this a lovely interpretation of the story's resolution.Victoria Vogel.
Publishers Weekly (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)As he did with
Starred Review Gaiman's frequent collaborator Russell brings his decades of comics know-how to this lovely, lyrical adaptation of the author's well-loved, Newbery Medal winning book. Not content to rely exclusively on his own distinctive talents, Russell has enlisted some of the industry's greatest contemporary illustrators as contributors, who fill the panels with appropriately gothic tones. In order to give ample room to the novel's twists and turns, the adaptation has been divided into two parts (the second will be released this fall). Running through the first five chapters and interlude of Gaiman's original, this volume weaves the inviting magical story of toddler Nobody Owens, who escapes the brutal murder of his family and is adopted by the supernatural denizens of a graveyard. The well-paced narrative follows Bod as his new graveyard family raises him with care and attentiveness and he begins to explore both the ghostly world he inhabits and the outside world that is his heritage. Each illustrator brings a unique aesthetic, blending together seamlessly to enrich the tale and suggest the subtle shifts of clever Bod's growth and burgeoning sense of adventure. Fans of Gaiman's delightfully macabre sensibilities will be elated. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Gaiman's fans are loyal and plentiful. Add a Newbery Medal to the mix and this will be a barn burner.
School Library Journal (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)Gr 5 Up-Starting off where the first volume (2014) of Russell's graphic novel adaptation of Gaiman's The Graveyard Book (2008, both HarperCollins) ended, this title covers the second half of the original book. Orphan Nobody "Bod" Owens continues his education with the help of the ghostly graveyard residents, but soon experiences growing pains as he interacts more and more with the outside world of the living. His guardian Silas enrolls Bod in a human school, where the boy's sense of right and wrong battles against his instincts to remain forgettable to his classmates and teachers. In the following segmentthe most action-packed and thought-provokingBod is reunited not only with his childhood friend Scarlett but also with the murderous Jack, responsible for his family's deaths. Now a teen, the protagonist grapples with feelings of revenge, honor, and even puppy love, all leading up to the work's climax. A bittersweet and hopeful conclusion will tug at the hearts of readers and followers of Gaiman and Russell's work. This volume's art style and pacing is more cohesive and even than the first, perhaps due to the longer chapters and the variety in settings. Underlying messianic themes and the striking juxtaposition of the evil clan of human assassins and the benevolent band of noble monsters begs classroom discussion. Essential reading for fans of Gaiman's original and those who enjoyed the first entry.— Shelley Diaz , School Library Journal
Kirkus Reviews (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)
Horn Book (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)
Voice of Youth Advocates (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)
Publishers Weekly (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)
Starred Review ALA Booklist (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)
School Library Journal (Mon Oct 07 00:00:00 CDT 2024)
Chapter One
How Nobody Came to the Graveyard
There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.
The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately.
The knife had done almost everything it was brought to that house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet.
The street door was still open, just a little, where the knife and the man who held it had slipped in, and wisps of nighttime mist slithered and twined into the house through the open door.
The man Jack paused on the landing. With his left hand he pulled a large white handkerchief from the pocket of his black coat, and with it he wiped off the knife and his gloved right hand which had been holding it; then he put the handkerchief away. The hunt was almost over. He had left the woman in her bed, the man on the bedroom floor, the older child in her brightly colored bedroom, surrounded by toys and half-finished models. That only left the little one, a baby barely a toddler, to take care of. One more and his task would be done.
He flexed his fingers. The man Jack was, above all things, a professional, or so he told himself, and he would not allow himself to smile until the job was completed.
His hair was dark and his eyes were dark and he wore black leather gloves of the thinnest lambskin.
The toddler's room was at the very top of the house. The man Jack walked up the stairs, his feet silent on the carpeting. Then he pushed open the attic door, and he walked in. His shoes were black leather, and they were polished to such a shine that they looked like dark mirrors: you could see the moon reflected in them, tiny and half full.
The real moon shone through the casement window. Its light was not bright, and it was diffused by the mist, but the man Jack would not need much light. The moonlight was enough. It would do.
He could make out the shape of the child in the crib, head and limbs and torso.
The crib had high, slatted sides to prevent the child from getting out. Jack leaned over, raised his right hand, the one holding the knife, and he aimed for the chest . . .
. . . and then he lowered his hand. The shape in the crib was a teddy bear. There was no child.
The man Jack's eyes were accustomed to the dim moonlight, so he had no desire to turn on an electric light. And light was not that important, after all. He had other skills.
The man Jack sniffed the air. He ignored the scents that had come into the room with him, dismissed the scents that he could safely ignore, honed in on the smell of the thing he had come to find. He could smell the child: a milky smell, like chocolate chip cookies, and the sour tang of a wet, disposable, nighttime diaper. He could smell the baby shampoo in its hair, and something small and rubbery—a toy, he thought, and then, no, something to suck—that the child had been carrying.
The child had been here. It was here no longer. The man Jack followed his nose down the stairs through the middle of the tall, thin house. He inspected the bathroom, the kitchen, the airing cupboard, and, finally, the downstairs hall, in which there was nothing to be seen but the family's bicycles, a pile of empty shopping bags, a fallen diaper, and the stray tendrils of fog that had insinuated themselves into the hall from the open door to the street.
The man Jack made a small noise then, a grunt that contained in it both frustration and also satisfaction. He slipped the knife into its sheath in the inside pocket of his long coat, and he stepped out into the street. There was moonlight, and there were streetlights, but the fog stifled everything, muted light and muffled sound and made the night shadowy and treacherous. He looked down the hill towards the light of the closed shops, then up the street, where the last high houses wound up the hill on their way to the darkness of the old graveyard.
The man Jack sniffed the air. Then, without hurrying, he began to walk up the hill.
Ever since the child had learned to walk he had been his mother's and father's despair and delight, for there never was such a boy for wandering, for climbing up things, for getting into and out of things. That night, he had been woken by the sound of something on the floor beneath him falling with a crash. Awake, he soon became bored, and had begun looking for a way out of his crib. It had high sides, like the walls of his playpen downstairs, but he was convinced that he could scale it. All he needed was a step . . .
He pulled his large, golden teddy bear into the corner of the crib, then, holding the railing in his tiny hands, he put his foot onto the bear's lap, the other foot up on the bear's head, and he pulled himself up into a standing position, and then he half-climbed, half-toppled over the railing and out of the crib.
He landed with a muffled thump on a small mound of furry, fuzzy toys, some of them presents from relations from his first birthday, not six months gone, some of them inherited from his older sister. He was surprised when he hit the floor, but he did not cry out: if you cried they came and put you back in your crib.
He crawled out of the room.
The Graveyard Book. Copyright © by Neil Gaiman . Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
Excerpted from The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
The second paperback edition of a glorious two-volume, full-color graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman's #1 New York Times bestselling and Newbery and Carnegie Medal-winning novel The Graveyard Book, adapted by P. Craig Russell and illustrated by an extraordinary team of renowned artists.
Inventive, chilling, and filled with wonder, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book reaches new heights in this stunning adaptation. Artists Kevin Nowlan, P. Craig Russell, Galen Showman, Scott Hampton, and David Lafuente lend their own signature styles to create an imaginatively diverse and yet cohesive interpretation of Neil Gaiman's luminous novel.
Volume Two includes Chapter Six through the end of the book.