The Graveyard Book Wins Newbery Medal

In what will surely come as a surprise to the people who say mean things about the award, the John Newbery Medal for children's literature was awarded to Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.

Mr. Gaiman, 48, won for "The Graveyard Book," a story about a boy who is raised in a cemetery by ghosts after his family is killed in the opening pages of the novel. In announcing the winner of what is widely considered the most prestigious honor in children's literature, the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, cited Mr. Gaiman's work for its "delicious mix of murder, fantasy, humor and human longing," noting its "magical, haunting prose."

Purely by coincidence, The Graveyard Book is one of the many books I've read recently that I haven't gotten around to writing up here. My short review: It's good. Despite being a play on The Jungle Book, it doesn't feel as in-jokey as a lot of his other stuff. I never felt like I was missing anything major by not having read The Jungle Book.

It's not brilliant, mind-- the ending is a bit anticlimactic, in that the book seems to be building toward a dramatic revelation, but when the revelation comes, there's not much there. There are some great bits along the way, though.

It's probably a good choice for the Newbery, in that it provides a lot of hooks to get kids to read other things. As with any Gaiman book, there are all sorts of off-hand references to bits of myth and history, and a young reader with access to a good library could probably spend many pleasant days tracking them down. And really, that's what you want in a kid's book.