Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book."

Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book." 

I am admittedly a big fan of Neil Gaiman.  He's strange and bittersweet, romantic and grotesque all at the same time.  Of his children's stories, I think that the Graveyard Book is one of the best.  The story begins with a toddler who escapes from the scene of the murder of his entire family by a mysterious assassin named "Jack," who has been sent from the "Convocation" to kill the boy for unspecified reasons.  But the toddler is adventurous and has already escaped from his crib, left the house while all the mayhem was going on and toddled up the hill to the local graveyard.  This is England, so the graveyards are very old.  There, the ghosts who inhabit the The Graveyard Bookgraveyard adopt him and raise him, giving him the Freedom of the Graveyard, which affords him certain rights and privileges.  Jack, meanwhile, has followed him to the graveyard but is befuddled by Siras, a local vampire, into thinking that the boy had gone into the town.  From that point on, Nobody Owens, the name the ghosts gave him, or Bod for short, cannot leave the graveyard for fear that Jack will find him and kill him.  But the graveyard is not all that safe, either.  Under a hill is a barrow, protected by a monster called the slee.  Nearby is a grave bearing a witch who still has the power to enchant the world.  What will happen to the baby surrounded by all these dangers?

It's a great read, lots of fun, and just a bit spooky.  The most beautiful scene is when the ghosts and the living meet one special night in the Old Town to "dance the Macabray," or in the French, the Danse Macabre.  The living dance with death itself, and if they do not remember what happened the next morning, the dead do. In this way, the line between living and dead is difficult to chart, for the living and the dead operate side by side, in one great community.

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.

Mark Twain

Quote for the day.

Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.

Sir Winston Churchill