Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book is a book for readers who get scared but read on…Nobody Owens, main character, is already an orphan when the book begins. The murderer of his family is still in the house when little ‘Nobody’ slips from his crib and wanders into a local graveyard. The ghosts of many years come to raise Nobdy as there own and Nobody is given the ‘Freedom of the Graveyard” which allows him to see, hear and know things no other human would have the sense to. His family’s slayer is still on the hunt for his final victim, though. Nobody’s caretaker ‘Silas’ is a dark person who lives somewhere between the living and the dead. This is great storytelling. You will not be disappointed in the beginning, the middle or the end.
Claire Dean’s Girlwood is a tempting story of present danger, wood spirits, sibling love and hate, and redemption. The book is somewhat plain in its storytelling and sometimes a little on the ‘uhhh, I don’t think THAT would happen,’ but all in all a decent read. Probably a book for tweens/teen girls rather than the boys even tho there are some very good boy characters. Solid read.
Back to the boys….V.M. Jones Out of Reach has some very good pictures of a young man who is barely ‘good enough.’His father is a disabled fireman who focuses his attention on Pip’s brother, the one who can do no wrong. Pip (short for Philip) is emotionally left out of his father’s game plan. Then Pip finds a solace and a gift in a local rock climbing gym. He becomes inwardly stronger when he climbs and knows that sometimes it depends on where you stand to get the attention you deserve. We each want to be recognized for what we do best. Sometimes getting your parents attention is harder than it should be. Good read, not earth-shattering, and the rock climbing bit is kind of neat. The author resides in New Zealand.
Lastly, in this post, is Cecilia Galante’s The Patron Saint of Butterflies What I find interesting about this is that the author based the story on an experience she had. Needless to say, a story that contains a very conservative Christian ‘cult’, two young teens who are very different from each other yet closely tied – one who desires to become a saint at all costs and the other who denies god in a most persistence way and adults around them who are in charge of their lives. Books take you into other lives without you having to suffer their same fates or dilemmas. Somehow we identify with the characters in books we enjoy. Perhaps in this book you may identify not so much with the characters – well developed as they are – but with the sense we do decide ourselves who we become.
