Gaiman, Neil. The graveyard book

Gaiman, Neil. The graveyard book. Harper Collins, 2008 [978-0-06-053092-1]
WOW I have not been so totally wrapped up in a Newbery book since "The Giver." This book has the cerebral thrill of a great suspense book along with the lighthearted ghost story of Ibbotson. The book opens with a family being murdered by someone with a large knife and the baby gets away and crawls to a cemetery where the ghosts and ghouls raise him. We don't know who murdered the family or why. At the cemetery, the ghosts get a person to bring the child and deal with the physical things a ghost can not do. The reader soon finds out that this person is not usual person (we don't really find out about him to the very end.) The boy grows up to 14 in the cemetery when he starts to want revenge for the death of his family. I don't want to say what happens at the end of this 312 book. As I said before I got totally wrapped up in this story and it completely freaked me out one night. The illustrations are weird and freaky such as ones in "Stories to tell in the dark." Except for the initial knife murders there is nothing "inappropriate" for younger kids in this book, I recommend you elementary people should read the book before you purchase it. While there is a light-hearted ghost story aspect to it, this book is a cerebral thriller... like I say.. I was totally freaked out by it one night and had to stop reading it for that night. Hooray for the Newbery Committee for choosing a spectacularly memorable book!