Getting a copy of This Is All

Shakespeare's has This Is All--nine copies. So, pick them up as soon as you can. See you Thursday. Best, Roni Natov

The Graveyard Book

The beginning of The Graveyard Book reminds me of a fireside ghost story, “There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.” That was the kind of story that could give me nightmares for weeks as a child but, after my initial visceral reaction, I found the creepy/scary beginning to be of minor importance. The scene passed quickly, and then I was absorbed completely into the world of the graveyard. I was thinking about the discussion in class with Zeta Elliot about what we all found appealing about children’s literature and what I realized is that The Graveyard Book encompasses a lot of the qualities that were important to me as a child. I looked to books often for guidance that was missing from my own childhood. The Graveyard Book offers a road map of sorts into adulthood. Bod is making the passage through the story from childhood, into adolescence, and finally, as he leaves the graveyard, into adulthood. He has guides who direct his emotional growth: Mrs. Owens, the poet and Silas. There are those responsible for his intellect: Mr. Pennyworth, Miss. Lupescu and Silas, and those who take care of him physically: Mr. and Mrs. Owens, Liza, when he breaks his leg and when he gets trapped, and, again, Silas. “It will ...take a graveyard [to raise this child],” says Silas. Silas seems to have the role of the omnipotent and infallible adult. I know these were qualities I often attributed to adults in my life when I was young. So, if I have any question for you guys, I guess it is, did this story resonate for anyone else as an allegory for growing up? Obviously, Bod’s story is of his development into a young man, but the ways in which Gaiman uses the graveyard and the inhabitants, echo for me, the challenge of trying to grow up in a complicated world.