Recent Reads: The Graveyard Book

Well, if every book I read this year is as good as the first one, I’ll have no problem reaching my goal of reading 52 books during the year.

I started off my year with the children’s title The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.  Considering Gaiman’s previous writing and the book’s title, I was expecting a chilling tale.  The book does start out with a murderer hot on the trail of a toddler after he has just killed the toddler’s parents and older sister.

What I didn’t expect from the book was how much heart it had.  The toddler narrowly escapes the murderer, known simply as Jack, by venturing into a nearby graveyard.  There the Owens couple, residents of the graveyard for several hundred years, save the boy and vow to raise him as their own.  Mysterious Silas, who is one of the only souls able to come and go from the graveyard as he pleases, agrees to serve as the boy’s guardian, providing him with food and other material needs over the years.  Over the years the boy, who is named Nobody, or Bod for short, is raised by this extended family of dead souls in the graveyard, and they each love him and guide him in their own special way.

The book is also full of suspense and adventure.  When Bod flees into the graveyard, Jack does not stop searching for him.  Bod’s life is perpetually in danger, and he must stay in the graveyard for safety.  Of course, being a curious boy, he does venture away from time to time, inevitably leading to one misadventure or another.  He also manages to find trouble within the gates of the graveyard, keeping Silas busy watching over him.  The book culminates in an exciting chase with Bod’s life on the line.

Throughout the book interesting questions are raised. What is a family?  What is friendship?  How does one live life to the fullest?  The Graveyard Book is really wonderful on so many levels.

I would highly recommend this book to children about nine years old and up, particularly mystery and fantasy fans.

Resolutions

I’m not really big on resolutions.  Even when I do make them, I end up breaking them almost immediately.  But this year I’m making a couple of resolutions that I really do intend to keep.  On a personal level, I’m resolving to live a healthier lifestyle.  I’ve been very happily married for a little over a year, and I have to admit that the scale shows it – and not in a good way.   I’ve gained about fifteen “happy” pounds since my wedding day, and I’m determined to turn things around.  So I’m getting myself back on track with my eating and exercise.

But more importantly for this blog, I want to make a resolution to improve myself professionally as well.  I’ve always been an avid reader, but I’m also a huge t.v. addict.  I know my addiction to television keeps me from reading as much as I should.  I really need to read more to develop my reader’s advisory skills further.  So this year I’m setting a reading goal for myself.  My plan is to average reading a book a week – so 52 books for the year.  I’ll split the 52 books among children’s, YA, and adult books.  I won’t count all the picture books or graphic novels I read in that amount either.  So, that means I’m challenging myself to read 17 YA, 17 adult, and 18 children’s books in 2009.  I’m putting the extra book in the children’s category because even though I’m a children’s librarian, I unfortunately let my children’s reading slide the most.  I naturally read a lot of YA titles, and my adult book club keeps me reading adult titles.

I’ll keep track of my reading this year on the blog, and I hope to have some great titles to review and recommend.

Happy New Year and Happy Reading!