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| Perma-Bound Edition ©2014 | -- |
| Publisher's Hardcover ©2014 | -- |
| 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.
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.
Horn BookAlso illustrated by Galen Showman, Tony Harris, and Jill Thompson.
Kirkus ReviewsRussell 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)
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)As he did with
Gr 5 Up-The award-winning tale about an orphaned boy raised in a graveyard by ghosts is successfully adapted for the graphic novel format by Russell and his cadre of artists. The arresting opening image of a bloody knife sets the tone for this sometimes gory, but often playful, illustrated version. A toddler's family is murdered by a mysterious stranger, and the denizens of the neighboring cemetery (ie. ghosts, vampires, and even a werewolf-type creature) take on the responsibility of being his caretakers. Renamed Nobody "Bod" Owens, the inquisitive boy grows up among the specters, making friends with a human girl, and escaping from several brushes with death. The panel's dark blues, grays, and purples are punctuated with vibrant greens, yellows, and crimson red. Each chapter is illustrated by an artist or two, who in turn infuse the entry with their own technique, while reflecting the story's original heart and atmosphere. Especially successful is the "The Hounds of God" section, illustrated by Tony Harris and Scott Hampton, which observant readers will note undergoes subtle shifts between the graveyard and the Ghoul kingdom. While some of the original's subtlety is lost, this adaptation still celebrates friendship, loyalty, and family with similar humor and aplomb. The concluding interlude segues eerily into the next volume, for which middle graders will anxiously be waiting. Shelley Diaz , School Library Journal
Voice of Youth Advocates (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)A newly orphaned toddler wanders into the safety of a graveyard in the dead of night, where he is adopted by two childless ghosts and given the name Nobody Owens. Nicknamed Bod, he is given the freedom of the graveyard, where he grows and thrives under the care of the ghostly inhabitants and his guardian, the mysterious Silas. But danger awaits Bod, as his family's killer, the man Jack, relentlessly searches for Bod in order to complete his assignment to murder the toddler.Volume 1 of a planned two-volume, full-color set covers chapters 1û5 and the interlude from Gaiman's original 2008 Newbery Medalûwinning title of the same name (HarperCollins, 2008/VOYA August 2008). Each chapter is drawn by a different artist in a unique and effective way. The novel's scenes of violence are front and center in the opening pages, leaving little to the reader's imagination as to how Bod's entire family is killed. In a lovely touch, unique to comic adaption, the living characters are clearly depicted in a variety of different ethnicities, most notably, Bod's friend Scarlett Perkins as a biracial child. While most libraries will already have copies of Gaiman's original title, the graphic novel captures and enhances the magic and horror in new and unexpected ways. Libraries will want to offer both the original prose and the graphic novel to their patrons.Amanda Foust.
Starred Review ALA Booklist (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)
Starred Review Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Horn Book
Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
School Library Journal (Tue Feb 28 00:00:00 CST 2023)
Voice of Youth Advocates (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)
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 first paperback edition of the glorious two-volume, full-color graphic novel adaptation of Neil Gaiman's #1 New York Times bestselling and Newbery Medal-winning novel The Graveyard Book.
Inventive, chilling, and filled with wonder, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book reaches new heights in this stunning adaptation, now in paperback. Artists Kevin Nowlan, P. Craig Russell, Tony Harris, Scott Hampton, Galen Showman, Jill Thompson, and Stephen B. Scott lend their own signature styles to create an imaginatively diverse and yet cohesive interpretation of Neil Gaiman's luminous novel.
Volume One contains Chapter One through the Interlude, while Volume Two includes Chapter Six to the end.