The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
★ Top 10 book of 2008 · #7 on Best Books of 2008
Bod is the lone living resident of a graveyard, raised from infancy by ghosts, werewolves, and other residents who teach him their old customs and skills like Fading from sight. He must eventually face both the living and the dead.
Best for: Readers who like gothic, ghostly coming-of-age tales and award-winning young adult stories
The Graveyard Book is #7 on BookWard's Best Books of 2008, out of 46 2008 books that cleared our data bar.
What The Graveyard Book is about
A killer known as the man Jack murders a family, but the youngest child, a toddler of about eighteen months, slips away. He crawls into a nearby graveyard, where the ghosts agree to raise him after his mother's ghost begs them to keep him safe. Mr. and Mrs. Owens become his adoptive parents, and he is named Nobody Owens, Bod for short.
Neil Gaiman's 2008 novel follows Bod's childhood among the dead. He is given the Freedom of the Graveyard, which lets him pass through solid objects within its bounds, and Silas, a caretaker who lives on the border between life and death, acts as his guardian. Bod befriends a living girl named Scarlett Perkins, and together they discover the Sleer in a prehistoric barrow. Later, Miss Lupescu looks after him, and he is tricked by Ghouls and rescued by her.
The tone is dark, whimsical, and gently eerie, with real warmth underneath. At heart it is about growing up, found family, and belonging, and about what it means to live among the dead while longing for the world of the living. Gaiman won both the British Carnegie Medal and the American Newbery Medal for it, the first time both were named for the same book.
The Graveyard Book on the Best Books of 2008
The Graveyard Book came out in 2008. Of the 46 books first published in 2008 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #7 on our Best Books of 2008 list.
Why it made the list: 723 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (123 ratings); 24 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2008 list
- Outliers Malcolm Gladwell, #5
- Michelle Obama in Her Own Words Michelle Obama, #6
- Thinking in Systems Donella H. Meadows, #8
- The Hero of Ages Brandon Sanderson, #9
See all Best Books of 2008 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2007 Best Books of 2009.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 523 want to read it, 24 are reading it now and 176 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4.2 out of 5 from 123 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 87 | 55% |
| Reader love | 83 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 76 | 20% |
Questions about The Graveyard Book
When was The Graveyard Book published?
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman was first published in 2008.
Was The Graveyard Book one of the best books of 2008?
The Graveyard Book is #7 on BookWard's Best Books of 2008, out of 46 2008 books that cleared our data bar. 723 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (123 ratings); 24 are reading it right now.
Why is The Graveyard Book on the Best Books of 2008 list?
723 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4.2 out of 5 (123 ratings); 24 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2008
- The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins, #1
- End of Days Sylvia Browne, #2
- The Last Straw Jeff Kinney, #3
- Amulet Kazu Kibuishi, #4
- Outliers Malcolm Gladwell, #5
- Michelle Obama in Her Own Words Michelle Obama, #6
See the full Best Books of 2008, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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