Booklist

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy - an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family. . . . Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic Coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, The Graveyard Book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.
I must admit that I haven't been a big fan of Gaiman's work. I read Neverwhere quite a few years ago and thought it was bizarre. I tried to pick up another Gaiman book (can't remember which) and couldn't get thru it. Many times I feel he's being weird just to be weird. This book was different in that I felt it had a story to tell albeit not a particularly original one. By the end I was enjoying the story but I felt it lagged in the middle. I also felt it was very, very dark and question how it won a Newberry award. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it for what it was but I didn't find it to be a brilliant piece of literature by any stretch.