Hey there, Curious One!!! So, today we are going to explore learning lessons from others. Whether they are your peers, elders, your parents or your siblings, lessons can be taught in so many ways by so many different people. Sometimes, all it takes is a single word or statement. Other times, you have to learn them by yourself and solve them by yourself.
Making mistakes is the only way you can learn, and learning is the only way you can grow. So, let’s grow and explore the beautifully curious world of Neil Gaiman in his 2008 fantasy book titled, The Graveyard Book.
Into The Graveyard Book
You begin with a man named Jack as he sneaks into a house to murder a family of four. You aren’t told why, just that it is a deed needing to be done and that he is very happy to do it. Obviously, he’s a very evil man. However, he fails, killing only the parents and the oldest child while the baby toddles off. Jack is shown to have some inhuman or supernatural abilities and easily tracks the baby to the graveyard where the majority of the book takes place.
However, the baby is “adopted” by a couple named Mr. and Mrs. Owens (they are ghosts) and protected by the inhabitants of the graveyard (the other ghosts) as well as the caretaker Silas (who though you are never told what he is, he has the likeness of an ancient vampire who is reformed and doing his best to be a good guy).
Silas is able to convince Jack that the baby crawled down the hill, not up to the cemetery, which is when Jack eventually loses the scent and can no longer track the child. The baby is welcomed by the graveyard and given the Freedom of the Graveyard which provides him the ability to pass through walls and headstones. After some discussion, the inhabitants eventually land on the name Nobody Owens – the child is then referenced as Bod throughout the remainder of The Graveyard Book.
Bod Meets Scarlett
As mentioned above, most of this story takes place inside the graveyard as Bod grows up. He has countless adventures and learns many lessons. He meets a young girl named Scarlett whose mother convinces her that Bod is an imaginary friend, before moving to Scotland. Silas leaves for a few weeks and leaves a Miss Lupescu to care for Bod while he is gone. However, Bod doesn’t like Miss Lupescu in the beginning and disobeys her, traveling to an alternate dimension hidden behind a gravestone which is inhabited by Ghouls.
Miss Lupescu is later revealed to be a Hound of God (a werewolf) when she rescues him from being eaten by a group of flesh-eating ghouls that Bod found himself captured by.
Bod also travels to Potter’s Field where he meets a witch who was put to death, befriends her, takes an ancient brooch from the Sleer (the creature that Bod and Scarlett ran into right before she moved away), gets kidnapped by a pawn-shop owner, only to be saved by said witch, escaping the clutches of Jack once more. The pawn-shop owner was a contact for the man Jack, so he unknowingly narrowly escapes him. This was all done so he could get enough money to buy a headstone to put on the witch’s grave so she would no longer be nameless.
Separation in The Graveyard Book
Oh! He also tried to go to regular school once, but was unable to keep a “low profile” because there were a couple bullies in the school that brought attention to him. Silas was furious about it and they got into an argument which later led to Silas being hit by a police car after one of the bullies lied to her uncle and got Bod arrested. Of course, Silas was not killed because he is assumingly a vampire. Assumingly.
When he had grown to fourteen years old, both Silas and Miss Lupescu leave, which angers and hurts him (after she saved him, he learned a lot of things from Miss Lupescu and grew to love her as family). During their time away, Scarlett returned from Scotland with just her mother (her parents had gotten divorced, which made her furious that she was taken from both her father and her friends). Through a series of “coincidences” she came across the graveyard and met a man named Mr. Frost. He’s a historian trying to document the oldest headstones and discover their names for records.
Eventually, she encounters Bod and realizes that he isn’t imaginary. She takes it upon herself to find out what happened to his family and asks Mr. Frost for help. Turns out that Mr. Frost is living in Bod’s old house and Scarlett convinces Bod to visit the house to try to find the answers he is looking for. He follows Mr. Frost upstairs to his old room, convinced that Mr. Frost found a document that had all the information Bod needed.
But, surprise! Mr. Frost is actually the man Jack. The same Jack who has been hunting Bod for over a decade now.
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Jack Frost – The Best and Brightest?
It was earlier revealed too, that Jack belonged to a secret organization of people (well, hinted at earlier, revealed later) who wanted the family murdered because a child would supposedly walk between worlds and destroy their organization. Because Jack failed to kill the entire family, he was no longer able to ascend the company ladder (he was supposedly the best and brightest, which is why he was initially the Jack hired to kill Bod’s family in the beginning). Bod overhears four other Jack’s (other men in the organization) talking about how their organization has been destroyed and they are all that is left.
So, Bod and Scarlett run from the house to the graveyard, looking for safety. He hides Scarlett in the cave of the Sleer and goes off, keeping the Jacks busy. He traps one in a grave with a broken ankle and traps the other three in the ghoul gate he ventured in when he was younger (the one where Miss Lupescu had to rescue him).
Then, he takes off back towards Scarlett to save her from the man Jack. Jack had captured Scarlett and threatened her, but Bod knew that the Sleer would take and kill Jack, so he played the game, saved Scarlett and Jack was then taken and killed by the Sleer. Scarlett had a freak-out and told Bod that he was just as bad as the monster Jacks and wanted to go home. Silas walked in at this moment. But…
The Ultimate Sacrifice
…Meanwhile…Silas, Miss Lupescu, an Ifrit and a winged mummy had been hunting down the men of this secret organization, killing them all. Miss Lupescu didn’t survive the last trip though, as she died as a sacrifice to save the others and to ultimately save Bod. They had been hunting these men for years, finally taking down the entire organization, which led to the final five men that Bod took on in the graveyard.
Back at the graveyard, Silas takes Scarlett back home, taking her memories of the graveyard and of Bod and their time together before convincing her and her mother to return to Scotland.
Silas returns to the graveyard to inform Bod of the news about Miss Lupescu. After a short amount of time, right around Bod’s fifteenth birthday, he began to lose the Freedom of the Graveyard and the family he grew up with (the ghosts) could no longer communicate and visit with him. He has a heartfelt goodbye with his “parents” – Mr. and Mrs. Owens – as well as Silas. The latter gives him a bag of items, a wallet of money and a passport with his name, Nobody Owens, before sending him out in the world.
And that is how The Graveyard Book ends. With Bod leaving the graveyard for good, searching for a life he deserves to live. Safe. No longer being hunted by the Jacks.
Can We All Grow Like Bod?
I have to admit, I cried a bit, I laughed a bit, I got angry a bit and I got annoyed a bit. So much happened in Bod’s life, but he still took each lesson he learned and flew with them. He learned so many things, even stuck in a graveyard and accepted to many things that many people never could and would.
I wanted to include The Graveyard Book in a discussion with a more detailed recount of the book (just in case you didn’t read it, Curious One, but was still curious enough to want to know what happened without reading it). Hahah! All because I think its most important lesson: listen to the advice of others and learn those lessons in your own way. Just because someone is teaching you something in a way that is boring and “stupid” to you, doesn’t mean you cannot still learn everything they are advising you about.
Take the basic information and run with it. If you don’t want to explore it in your own way, find a different teacher or advisor to help you figure it out in a way that makes sense to you. Don’t give up because you get angry and don’t ignore what is being said because you are arrogant. Take every lesson you can, because you never know if you will be able to learn it later.
My Takeaways
Essentially what I am trying to say here, Curious One, is don’t give up. There is so much out there that you should never settle for basic if you want more. Now, with that said, if you want basic and are searching for something else, go right ahead! There is nothing wrong with basic, mediocre, average, excelling, over-the-top, or extreme. They are all there because everyone is unique and special in their own ways and don’t allow someone else to tell you what and who you are. You alone have that power.
It took me awhile to figure it out, but each chapter was about two years apart from one another, which allowed you to essentially grow up with Bod. You could easily stretch this book out with your own child, reaching one chapter every year or two, recounting the entire book when they are older. It was even written in a language that grew with the protagonist. I mean, it began as very simple language and terminology, growing to more and more knowledgeable vocabulary, fitting the age of the protagonist. I’m not sure I explained that very well, but if you read it, it makes tons of sense.
You know how much I relate the use of vocabulary and age within the world created by the authors, Curious One, so you know how much this seems magical to me. It had to have taken time and an incredible mental acuity on the part of Neil Gaiman to achieve this with such success!
Concluding The Graveyard Book
I’ve always been a huge fan of Gaiman, but mostly for his larger, more adult works like American Gods, Neverwhere and Stardust, but I have to say that The Graveyard Book is stellar and I could not have been more surprised and happy with the results.
I read that it was supposed to be adapted into a film in 2009, but it changed hands a few times and has never been pursued. But he has been nominated and won so many awards, as well as answering fans on his twitter account. However, I think it is a notable achievement to include here that The Graveyard Book is the only book in history to win both the Newbery (from the US) AND the Carnegie (from the UK) medals. Just saying…that’s a big thing, if you ask me…
Due to my reaction to The Graveyard Book, I might even consider reading Coraline – something that I never really sought to do. All I can say is that if you haven’t read The Graveyard Book you should. Whether you have young children or not, it is definitely worth the read. I have the version with the illustrations done by Dave McKean, and they are incredible as well! Please, give it a shot. Don’t let the genre fool you either. It’s not for the faint of heart or those who don’t want to answer questions asked by their child.
All in all, Gaiman did an incredible job and I can’t believe it took me this long to finally pick it up and read it!
I hope your week is finding you with laughter and happiness in this chaotic world. Keep reading and satiating your curiosity. Learn as much as you can, every day that you can!
For me… it’s time for another book…
Check out Neil Gaiman at the following links:
@NeilHimself on Twitter
Neil Gaiman’s Website
Neil Gaiman on Facebook
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If you enjoyed this discussion, check out some other discussions in the Fantasy, Suspense/Thriller, and Other pages! Make sure to check out the Time for a Notebook as well for notes on things book related! Thanks!!
