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The Graveyard Book
The Graveyard Book
The Graveyard Book
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The Graveyard Book

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Neil Gaiman's perennial favorite, The Graveyard Book, has sold more than one million copies and is the only novel to win both the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal. 

Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place—he's the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians' time as well as their ghostly teachings—such as the ability to Fade so mere mortals cannot see him.

Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead?

The Graveyard Book is the winner of the Newbery Medal, the Carnegie Medal, the Hugo Award for best novel, the Locus Award for Young Adult novel, the American Bookseller Association’s “Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book,” a Horn Book Honor, and Audio Book of the Year. Don't miss this modern classic—whether shared as a read-aloud or read independently, it's sure to appeal to readers ages 8 and up.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateOct 6, 2009
ISBN9780061972652
Author

Neil Gaiman

NEIL GAIMAN was awarded the Newbery and Carnegie Medals for The Graveyard Book. His other books for younger readers include Coraline (which was made into an Academy-Award-nominated film) and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (which wasn’t). Born in England, he has won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. You can learn more at www.mousecircus.com.

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Reviews for The Graveyard Book

Rating: 4.026705163189097 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The premise: ganked from BN.com: 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. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack--who has already killed Bod's family . . . My RatingBuy the Paperback: but it's close to "Give It Away." Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this well enough: it's a fast read with some delightful moments and lovely language, but a closer inspection of the plot made me batty. I'm glad I found it on the used bookshelf for only $8.99. :) The art's nice too (but then again, I do love Dave McKean), but I wish there'd been more of it. A predictable story in its own way, so if you're a Gaiman newbie, I don't suggest starting here. Go for his other Hugo winner: American Gods. Now that is a book to sink your teeth into, and to be honest, I'm kind of wanting to read it again. The Graveyard Book is fun enough, but I don't see myself coming back to it, unless I have a kid one day and we read it together. Which, for the record, would be lots of fun, even though the beginning is quite dark. :)Review style: I'm going to verge into spoiler territory this time, because part of what I want to talk about are the bigger questions the plot raises but doesn't resolve. Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil the ending directly, but there's some logic questions I want to bring up that I hope closer readers of this book can answer. Also, I'll talk about the comparison to Kipling's The Jungle Book (which I've never read), and discuss the book's target audience (here's a hint, it's not YA!). If you're worried about the plot questions/spoilers I raise, skip to "My Rating" at the end of the review, where I talk about whether or not this is a good title for Gaiman newbies to start with.The full review may be found in my LJ, if you're interested. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)REVIEW: Neil Gaiman's THE GRAVEYARD BOOKHappy Reading!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I really wanted to love this book, after loving Good Omens.There was an interesting plot device. It was an interesting story but, overall, I take issue when an author creates magical or spiritual beings and subscribes them abilities that bring impossible resolution to the issue at hand.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An odd and lovely and dark fantasy about a boy raised in a graveyard by ghosts and a mysterious guardian after a villain murders his family. Gaiman reads it well also.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Nobody Owens, Bod to those who do know him. A boy who is raised in a graveyard by the ghosts who live there over the last hundreds of years. Protected from those who brutally murdered his Mother, Father and sister, but missed him.He is granted Freedom of the Graveyard, which means he has the ability to pass through solid objects within the graveyard. He is taught the ways of the spirits and also learns what life was like in the eras the spirits were still living humans.Silas is Bod's appointed caretaker. Mr. and Mrs. Owens are his foster parents. They never had a child while alive, so this is their chance. It is Mrs. Owens that gives Bod his name, as she remarks that "He looks like nobody except himself."The chapters are spaced apart, sort of telling of different periods of time from when he arrived at the graveyard as just a toddler until he became 15. He has no real memories of his parents or the murder. A murder that seemed to have been ignored and never solved, for some strange reason.He makes friends with a little girl named Scarlett, when he is quite young. He never shows himself to her parents so they convince Scarlett he is just an imaginary friend. They soon move away and once again he only has the ghosts of the graveyard for company.The graveyard is very old and about 40 years before Bod arrived, it was declared a natural reserve and not very often visited. This makes it that much easier for Bod to live there. Silas, his caretaker, has the ability to go to the village to get supplies for Bod, so that is taken care of. The spirits teach him from what they know; reading, sums and a little history. He does try attending school with regular children, but it doesn't work out due to bullies.He does have adventures and makes friends that are unusual, such as Miss Lupescu, a Hound of God; Elizabeth Hempstock who was executed for being a witch. He learns supernatural abilities such as Fading or turning invisible, Haunting, Dream Walking and more. Some of these abilities come in handy.I took time to read this as it seemed to be a book written to be read that way. Yes there is excitement and Bod does find out about what happened to his family. He also finds that there is much to experience outside of the graveyard and that he can't live there forever.Interesting side note: I have some quotes about writing that pop-up on my computer. The author is the same author of this book. I'd never read Neil Gaiman before. Very enjoyable!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Reread this book and wrote a lot of Battle of the Books Questions for the 2013 teams. I liked it much btter this time.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Better late than never! This won the Newbery in 2009 and it's just as good now. It's got enough "creep" to make a child shiver and giggle without giving him or her nightmares. As usual, Gaiman is a creative, imaginative writer who always seems to get it right. Meet "Bod" (short for Nobody Owens) who is being "raised by the dead" (get it?) in a graveyard to keep him safe from the man who murdered his entire family when he was a baby.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is gorgeous. Wonderful. Stupendous. I'm not sure how many other words I can come up with to describe it, but the fact remains that it was one of the best stories I've had the pleasure to dive into this year. To those of you who might not have read Neil Gaiman's work before, it is always very layered. Enjoyable at any age, but the older you are the more you can see the hidden story line beneath everything else. This story is no different. The Graveyard Book is a story about humanity, friendship, and the age old battle of growing up.

    Nobody Owens (Bod for short), looses his family in a grisly murder. Sad, I know. However what happens next is magic. Taken in by the inhabitants of the graveyard that he wanders into, Bod soon learns so much more than he ever imagined. I loved the way that Gaiman shows Bod's different stages of life. At a young age, Bod is smart and curious. As he grows, his questions turn from simple curiosity, to actual life lessons that he is trying to learn. Each of the graveyard members is unique and vibrant. From long dead war heroes, to simple folk who keep to themselves, the graveyard is a bustling place for a young boy to grow up.

    What will really draw you into The Graveyard Book though is the writing. Neil Gaiman's writing is one of the reasons I fell in love with his books in the first place. Every page is filled with gorgeous prose, vivid descriptions, and witty observations. Bod's story, in particular, has a lovely mix of mischief, magic and horror. There were portions of this book that had me shivering in my boots. Well, shoes. Anyhow, it is really the ability to get so wholly lost in this story that really makes it a great read. You'll find yourself in the graveyard, and chances are you won't want to leave.

    I'm not sure how else to implore you to read this book. The writing, the characters, the whole entire vibe is just pure ambrosia. There are moments that will break your heart, and others that will startle you with their sudden appearance. Whether this is your first foray into Gaiman's brilliantly woven worlds, or you're an avid fan, this is a book that is sure to delight.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What can I say - I love Neil Gaiman's books! I laughed, cried and had a lot of other emotions in between as I went through this book. Ghosts, vampires and werewolves have never been more endearing...
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of my best memories of 2008, was traveling to Comic Con in NY and having a chance to hear Neil Gaiman read from this book for hours. I was so excited when it won the Newbery!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Nobody Owens is raised in a cemetary after his family is murdered. He was supposed to die that night but wandered away before the murderer caught him. He is safe as long as he stays in the cemetary. He can see the spirits of the graveyard's inhabitants. He learns from them on the physical as well as spiritual side of life. He grows. He gets into trouble. He needs Silas and the rest of the spirits and guardians of the graveyard. I enjoyed this book. It is my favorite Neil Gaiman book so far. I loved the characters and the story. It was fun and different from much of my reading. If I owned this book, it would be a keeper.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I didn't know what to expect from this book but have to admit I really enjoyed it, although it is quite different fayre to the books I usually read. I wouldn't have read this but for the Librarything Mystery and Suspense Extra Group Monthly Sub-genre Challenge, which is the beauty of these challenges. I think it was very cleverly written and can be enjoyed by both adults and children. It almost needs a sequel to find out what happened next! I do look forward to reading more books by Neil Gaiman in the future.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Even if you own and have read this novel for yourself you should look up the audio-book and listen to it read by the author who reads beautifully.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My first encounter with Neil Gaiman was several years ago in his Sandman graphic novel series... I started the first one, got too scared and had to put it down. Last year I was reintroduced to his work The Ocean at the End of the Lane in a book club and could not put it down. I heard that The Graveyard Book had a similar tone, so I got it from the library. And it's true!I didn't want this book to end. It's telling is sweet and sad and a little bit dark. It reminded me a little of Grimm's Fairy Tales in its nonchalant approach to murder. Though I didn't find it as compelling the whole way through as The Ocean (I think because it is a children's/tween aged book and I'm 35) but I really enjoyed the read. The characters are explored beautifully and plot is developed thoughtfully, the story is believable while still being obviously fantastical.I read this book for this years book bingo square entitled "a retelling of a classic" because the story is intended to pay homage to Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book". It truly is a coming of age tale, and like Mowgli struggles between the wild and the tame, Bod struggles with his 'gift' of straddling the border between the living and the dead. The reason is very similar, I think, in the living and the tame both lack the wisdom of surrender inherent to the wild and the dead. The depth of this perspective is vital to true happiness in life and bares repeating over and over. I hope the generations exposed to The Graveyard Book gain wisdom from this book and are enticed to read the Jungle Book over again as adults.I'm giving this book four stars because while it opened my mind and deepened my sense of living life, I don't know that I would read it over. I would definitely recommend it to others though!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Rating: 5 of 5My 30-year old sister and 11-year old niece both read this and told me I *had* to read it. Thus I checked it out from the library, not expecting it to blow my mind. Honestly, books like this are why I read. It has everything one could hope for: humor, the creepies, a love story; and yes, I cried. It did for graveyards what James and the Giant Peach did for fruit and insects :D The Graveyard Book is on my 2011 x-mas list.Review of the hardcover edition, which I borrowed from the library. I bought the paperback in December 2011.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was fantastic. From the moment I was introduced to Nobody 'Bod' Owens I wanted to keep reading. Gaiman's story about the young boy raised in a graveyard after the murder of his family is sad, entertaining, and a fun read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    loved it! best to read in one sitting where you never have to leave his world and characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Nice book, than can be read by people of any age.
    It would probably get a bigger rating, but I liked first half much better than the second. I was not surprised when I read in 'Authors Note' at the end of the book that he wrote the second half a long time ago and then later added the first couple of chapters.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    No matter what genre you prefer, try out a Gaiman book. I swear, he crosses all boundaries with his writing.

    He's magical, lyrical, beautiful. He's the modern version of Lewis Carroll, J.M. Barrie or Rudyard Kipling -- possessed of the same otherwordly, all-engrossing qualities of literary talent. To say his works transport you to another world isn't quite adequate -- they take you to that place between sleep and awake, the fever-dream you can never quite describe.

    This particular book, despite the grim-sounding title and macabre-seeming premise is simply another great example of Gaiman's inimitable talent. Highly recommended for anyone who reads. At all. Ever.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I got The Graveyard Book for Christmas, yesterday, and devoured it in a single day despite also reading other stuff, watching movies, going shopping, seeing friends and all those things you do when you're home for Christmas. It's lovely. I like some of Neil's other books, like Neverwhere and American Gods, better, but at the same time this one has its attractions. It feels more... bite-size. Easily digestible.

    I haven't actually read The Jungle Book, so I can't make comparisons with that original inspiration, but I do love the idea of this: a boy gets raised, in a graveyard, by ghosts. In some ways, I wish there'd been less Bod and more Silas, but on the other hand it was quite nice to feel that there was a whole world of stories there and we got glimpses into many of them. I liked the episodic sort of form; I wish there'd been more episodes, though. I also liked that although we are given many, many hints about Silas, the word "vampire" is not used once.

    The strength of this book for me was the voices. The narrative voice included. The dry little comments about Silas, the parenthetical dates of births and deaths... it all added up to make me smile often and giggle a few times. Silas' character was lovely, and the glimpse we got into his feelings in the last chapter was fascinating. The Owenses were good, I could virtually hear their voices as I read their lines -- helped, of course, by having listened to the recordings of Neil Gaiman reading this aloud.

    Not my favourite book in the whole wide world, but nonetheless a keeper, something easy and smooth for when I'm not feeling up to a mammoth undertaking.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This applies to the audio version. I enjoyed listening to this. Neil Gaiman read it and I enjoyed his narration. He didn't over play it, try to act things out or over emote, but wasn't dull either - just like having someone who reads well read you a story.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I mean, it's Neil Gaiman. I obviously was going to like it, as he is awesome. My only problem was with the end. It sort of just dropped off to me. I would say that I didn't notice the similarities to The Jungle Book until afterward, and now I sort of want to read it, rather than just rely on my Disney movie knowledge.

    So far this year The Graveyard Book has won the Newbery and the Cybil. So it's a pretty good year for Mr. Gaiman, I believe!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I enjoyed the characters more than the actual story. I really liked Nobody- the main character who was raised in a graveyard. His view of the world is fascinating- he's so honest and doesn't believe in talking nonsense. Silas was mysterious and intelligent- I found him really fun to read about. Overall, the plot lacked in substance, but I really enjoyed it anyway.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I wanted to love this, really. But it seemed more like a collection of interrelated incidents than one full story. Some of the incidents I liked (The Witch's Headstone, which was used as an isolated story in M is for Magic) but overall this didn't hold together for me. Maybe I set the bar too high; maybe it's me and not the book that disappoints.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I absolutely adored this book.

    It's the story of a young boy and his growing up... in a graveyard. There are several vignettes told through his life, and they all connect at the end. I love the use of the man Jacks.

    I love Gaiman's story telling, and always, his voice acting for the audiobook is just awesome.

    If I had a kid, this would definitely be on its bookshelf.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I just sat down and read this in a day (sorry, store customers, surely you were happy finding your own books).

    Makes me think there should be a category for books set in graveyards. The other one, of course is Beagle's Fine and Private Place. Oh, and of course the Spoon River Anthology.

    Satisfying, shivery, beautiful, and open ended...sort of like life.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A complex, beautifully written, generally very fun read. Also, how many novels have Tori Amos lyrics and endorsements from Diana Wynne Jones?

    The early chapters were a bit patchy, at least reading them the first time through; they felt episodic and a little predictable. In general, while the language, characters, and themes were written to appeal to any age, many of the plot twists, however well executed, would only be surprising to children. Didn't bother me, I'm just surprised that the novel is being so heavily cross-advertised to adults, at least on this side of the pond. (The library ordered two copies, one for adults, one JF but put in the teen section!)

    Silas is AWESOME.

    If the last chapter doesn't make you teary-eyed, you are probably broken and there is no hope for you.

    Good book, will reread!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I am pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this novel -- quick satisfying young adult fantasy/supernatural tale.

    "It takes a graveyard" to raise a suddenly orphaned baby (re-named Nobody 'Bod' Owens by his adopted dead parents). Silas, another mysterious denizen of this abandoned graveyard-cum-nature preserve, agrees to be the boy's guardian and provide food and clothing for Bod, since the other ghost residents are unable to leave the grounds.

    Each chapter covers an incident or memorable moment in the life of Bod, usually for a particular year, like age five, age eight, age eleven. Because he's under the protection of the graveyard, he learns skills normally reserved for ghosts, like Fading, Haunting, Fear, Dreamwalking, etc.

    Bod seldom ventures outside the grounds because his parents' murderer still seeks to terminate him. Once this mystery is solved, Bod is free to leave the graveyard safely and explore the world of the living.

    While necessary to the plot, I felt pity for all these ghosts confined to this graveyard - seems a poor excuse for an afterlife. And once Bod leaves, will they fade away like the mists in the dawn, forgotten and slumbering in the overgrown graveyard up the hill?
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I wanted to love this book. I really dove into it with some enthusiasm because I love Neil Gaiman and his support of childhood literacy and public libraries. But, maybe my expectations were a little too high. I enjoyed it well enough, but I didn't love it. The structure of the plot was jarring. Each chapter would jump through Bod's life a few years without any warning. It took time to adjust and figure out just where I was in the timeline. I did enjoy Bod's life very much though. Not only did we get to see the struggles of a "normal" young boy, we also got to imagine how life would be to learn the lessons and hear the stories from people long ago gone. The idea most dear to my heart was that of "Fading". Oh, how I would LOVE to fade! Sometimes I even feel like I do fade, I just slip into nonexistence for a while when I really don't want anyone to notice me. There were so many things that I enjoyed about this book, I just wish the plot was presented a bit more smoothly.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When I started reading this book i didn't really like it that much but when i started reading it more i got into the book.This book is about a baby boy,who is later named Bod Owens.He later starts growing up into a handsome young.But he soons find out that his entire family is dead.A man named JAck had killed his family long ago.Bod gains his own powers over the years.He has learned to Fade and DreamWalk.Basically what these are,are Fading is when u dissappear like a shadow,noone can see u.DreamWalks are when you can go into someones dream and make it into something else. Bod meets a girl named Scarlett. She later finds out that Bod is a really mysteryouis boy. She iS later in danger from the man who killed Bod's family is changing his name to Mr.Frost (Jack Frost).They both find out he is a really bad man and Bod has to try to defeat him.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When a toddler wanders into the graveyard, the ghosts that reside there are thrown into an uproar. How can they possibly care for a living child? But Mr. and Mrs. Owens are adamant that they will take in the baby, whom they name Nobody (Bod for short). And so Bod grows up in the graveyard learning the basics of Fading and Dreamwalking while also remaining curious about the world outside the graveyard gates and the murders of his family that led him to the graveyard to begin with.Gaiman's ability to write charming but spooky novels always delights me and The Graveyard Book was not a disappointment. The tales of Bod's life in the graveyard are by turns sweet and scary but always entertaining and I appreciated the episodic nature of the novel as it allowed Bod to grow up quickly over the course of the novel. I was thoroughly delighted by the slow reveal of the villain and found the overall concept very clever. Additionally, the illustrations by Dave McKean add an extra element of creepiness that enhances the atmosphere of the novel. And of course, being Neil Gaiman, there are also some truly beautiful sentences woven into the narrative that I found particularly moving.

Book preview

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

CHAPTER ONE

How Nobody Came to the Graveyard

THERE WAS A HAND IN the darkness, and it held a knife.

The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately.

The knife had done almost everything it was brought to that house to do, and both the blade and the handle were wet.

The street door was still open, just a little, where the knife and the man who held it had slipped in, and wisps of nighttime mist slithered and twined into the house through the open door.

The man Jack paused on the landing. With his left hand he pulled a large white handkerchief from the pocket of his black coat, and with it he wiped off the knife and his gloved right hand which had been holding it; then he put the handkerchief away. The hunt was almost over. He had left the woman in her bed, the man on the bedroom floor, the older child in her brightly colored bedroom, surrounded by toys and half-finished models. That only left the little one, a baby barely a toddler, to take care of. One more and his task would be done.

He flexed his fingers. The man Jack was, above all things, a professional, or so he told himself, and he would not allow himself to smile until the job was completed.

His hair was dark and his eyes were dark and he wore black leather gloves of the thinnest lambskin.

The toddler’s room was at the very top of the house. The man Jack walked up the stairs, his feet silent on the carpeting. Then he pushed open the attic door, and he walked in. His shoes were black leather, and they were polished to such a shine that they looked like dark mirrors: you could see the moon reflected in them, tiny and half full.

The real moon shone through the casement window. Its light was not bright, and it was diffused by the mist, but the man Jack would not need much light. The moonlight was enough. It would do.

He could make out the shape of the child in the crib, head and limbs and torso.

The crib had high, slatted sides to prevent the child from getting out. Jack leaned over, raised his right hand, the one holding the knife, and he aimed for the chest…

…and then he lowered his hand. The shape in the crib was a teddy bear. There was no child.

The man Jack’s eyes were accustomed to the dim moonlight, so he had no desire to turn on an electric light. And light was not that important, after all. He had other skills.

The man Jack sniffed the air. He ignored the scents that had come into the room with him, dismissed the scents that he could safely ignore, honed in on the smell of the thing he had come to find. He could smell the child: a milky smell, like chocolate chip cookies, and the sour tang of a wet, disposable, nighttime diaper. He could smell the baby shampoo in its hair, and something small and rubbery—a toy, he thought, and then, no, something to suck—that the child had been carrying.

The child had been here. It was here no longer. The man Jack followed his nose down the stairs through the middle of the tall, thin house. He inspected the bathroom, the kitchen, the airing cupboard, and, finally, the downstairs hall, in which there was nothing to be seen but the family’s bicycles, a pile of empty shopping bags, a fallen diaper, and the stray tendrils of fog that had insinuated themselves into the hall from the open door to the street.

The man Jack made a small noise then, a grunt that contained in it both frustration and also satisfaction. He slipped the knife into its sheath in the inside pocket of his long coat, and he stepped out into the street. There was moonlight, and there were streetlights, but the fog stifled everything, muted light and muffled sound and made the night shadowy and treacherous. He looked down the hill towards the light of the closed shops, then up the street, where the last high houses wound up the hill on their way to the darkness of the old graveyard.

The man Jack sniffed the air. Then, without hurrying, he began to walk up the hill.

Ever since the child had learned to walk he had been his mother’s and father’s despair and delight, for there never was such a boy for wandering, for climbing up things, for getting into and out of things. That night, he had been woken by the sound of something on the floor beneath him falling with a crash. Awake, he soon became bored, and had begun looking for a way out of his crib. It had high sides, like the walls of his playpen downstairs, but he was convinced that he could scale it. All he needed was a step…

He pulled his large, golden teddy bear into the corner of the crib, then, holding the railing in his tiny hands, he put his foot onto the bear’s lap, the other foot up on the bear’s head, and he pulled himself up into a standing position, and then he half-climbed, half-toppled over the railing and out of the crib.

He landed with a muffled thump on a small mound of furry, fuzzy toys, some of them presents from relations from his first birthday, not six months gone, some of them inherited from his older sister. He was surprised when he hit the floor, but he did not cry out: if you cried they came and put you back in your crib.

He crawled out of the room.

Stairs that went up were tricky things, and he had not yet entirely mastered them. Stairs that went down however, he had discovered, were fairly simple. He did them sitting down, bumping from step to step on his well-padded bottom.

He sucked on his nummer, the rubber pacifier his mother had just begun to tell him that he was getting too old for.

His diaper had worked itself loose on his journey on his bottom down the stairs, and when he reached the last step, when he reached the little hall and stood up, the diaper fell off. He stepped out of it. He was only wearing a child’s nightshirt. The stairs that led back up to his room and his family were steep, but the door to the street was open and inviting….

The child stepped out of the house a little hesitantly. The fog wreathed around him like a long-lost friend. And then, uncertainly at first, then with increasing speed and confidence, the boy tottered up the hill.

The fog was thinner as you approached the top of the hill. The half-moon shone, not as bright as day, not by any means, but enough to see the graveyard, enough for that.

Look.

You could see the abandoned funeral chapel, iron doors padlocked, ivy on the sides of the spire, a small tree growing out of the guttering at roof level.

You could see stones and tombs and vaults and memorial plaques. You could see the occasional dash or scuttle of a rabbit or a vole or a weasel as it slipped out of the undergrowth and across the path.

You would have seen these things, in the moonlight, if you had been there that night.

You might not have seen a pale, plump woman, who walked the path near the front gates, and if you had seen her, with a second, more careful glance you would have realized that she was only moonlight, mist, and shadow. The plump, pale woman was there, though. She walked the path that led through a clutch of half-fallen tombstones towards the front gates.

The gates were locked. They were always locked at four in the afternoon in winter, at eight at night in summer. Spike-topped iron railings ran around part of the cemetery, a high brick wall around the rest of it. The bars of the gates were closely spaced: they would have stopped a grown man from getting through, even stopped a ten-year-old child…

Owens! called the pale woman, in a voice that might have been the rustle of the wind through the long grass. Owens! Come and look at this!

She crouched down and peered at something on the ground, as a patch of shadow moved into the moonlight, revealing itself to be a grizzled man in his mid-forties. He looked down at his wife, and then looked at what she was looking at, and he scratched his head.

Mistress Owens? he said, for he came from a more formal age than our own. Is that what I think it is?

And at that moment the thing he was inspecting seemed to catch sight of Mrs. Owens, for it opened its mouth, letting the rubber nipple it was sucking fall to the ground, and it reached out a small, chubby fist, as if it were trying for all the world to hold on to Mrs. Owens’s pale finger.

Strike me silly, said Mr. Owens, if that isn’t a baby.

Of course it’s a baby, said his wife. And the question is, what is to be done with it?

I daresay that is a question, Mistress Owens, said her husband. "And yet, it is not our question. For this here baby is unquestionably alive, and as such is nothing to do with us, and is no part of our world."

Look at him smile! said Mrs. Owens. He has the sweetest of smiles, and with one insubstantial hand she stroked the child’s sparse blond hair. The little boy giggled with delight.

A chilly breeze blew across the graveyard, scattering the fog in the lower slopes of the place (for the graveyard covered the whole of the top of the hill, and its paths wound up the hill and down and back upon themselves). A rattling: someone at the main gate of the graveyard was pulling and shaking it, rattling the old gates and the heavy padlock and chain that held them.

There now, said Owens, it’s the babe’s family, come to bring him back to the loving bosom. Leave the little man be, he added, because Mrs. Owens was putting her insubstantial arms around the toddler, smoothing, stroking.

Mrs. Owens said, He dun’t look like nobody’s family, that one. The man in the dark coat had given up on rattling the main gates and was now examining the smaller side gate. It, too, was well-locked. There had been some vandalism in the graveyard the previous year, and the council had Taken Steps.

Come on, Mistress Owens. Leave it be. There’s a dear, said Mr. Owens, when he saw a ghost, and his mouth dropped open, and he found himself unable to think of anything to say.

You might think—and if you did, you would be right—that Mr. Owens should not have taken on so at seeing a ghost, given that Mr. and Mrs. Owens were themselves dead and had been for a few hundred years now, and given that the entirety of their social life, or very nearly, was spent with those who were also dead. But there was a difference between the folk of the graveyard and this: a raw, flickering, startling shape the grey color of television static, all panic and naked emotion which flooded the Owenses as if it was their own. Three figures, two large, one smaller, but only one of them was in focus, was more than an outline or a shimmer. And the figure said, My baby! He is trying to harm my baby!

A clattering. The man outside was hauling a heavy metal garbage can across the alley to the high brick wall that ran around that part of the graveyard.

Protect my son! said the ghost, and Mrs. Owens thought it was a woman. Of course, the babe’s mother.

What did he do to you? asked Mrs. Owens, but she was not certain that the ghost could hear her. Recently dead, poor love, she thought. It’s always easier to die gently, to wake in due time in the place you were buried, to come to terms with your death and to get acquainted with the other inhabitants. This creature was nothing but alarm and fear for her child, and her panic, which felt to the Owenses like a low-pitched screaming, was now attracting attention, for other pale figures were coming from all over the graveyard.

Who are you? Caius Pompeius asked the figure. His headstone was now only a weathered lump of rock, but two thousand years earlier he had asked to be laid to rest on the mound beside the marble shrine, rather than to have his body sent back to Rome, and he was one of the most senior citizens of the graveyard. He took his responsibilities extremely seriously. Are you buried here?

Of course she’s not! Freshly dead by the look of her. Mrs. Owens put an arm around the woman-shape and spoke to it privately, in a low voice, calm and sensible.

There was a thump and a crash from the high wall beside the alley. The garbage can had fallen. A man clambered up onto the top of the wall, a dark outline against the mist-smudged streetlights. He paused for a moment, then climbed down the other side, holding on to the top of the wall, legs dangling, then let himself fall the last few feet, down into the graveyard.

But my dear, Mrs. Owens said to the shape, now all that was left of the three shapes that had appeared in the graveyard. He’s living. We’re not. Can you imagine…

The child was looking up at them, puzzled. It reached for one of them, then the other, finding nothing but air. The woman-shape was fading fast.

Yes, said Mrs. Owens, in response to something that no one else had heard. If we can, then we will. Then she turned to the man beside her. And you, Owens? Will you be a father to this little lad?

Will I what? said Owens, his brow crinkling.

We never had a child, said his wife. And his mother wants us to protect him. Will you say yes?

The man in the black coat had tripped in the tangle of ivy and half-broken headstones. Now he got to his feet and walked forward more carefully, startling an owl which rose on silent wings. He could see the baby and there was triumph in his eyes.

Owens knew what his wife was thinking when she used that tone of voice. They had not, in life and in death, been married for over two hundred and fifty years for nothing. Are you certain? he asked. Are you sure?

Sure as I ever have been of anything, said Mrs. Owens.

Then yes. If you’ll be its mother, I’ll be its father.

Did you hear that? Mrs. Owens asked the flickering shape in the graveyard, now little more than an outline, like distant summer lightning in the shape of a woman. It said something to her that no one else could hear, and then it was gone.

She’ll not come here again, said Mr. Owens. Next time she wakes it’ll be in her own graveyard, or wherever it is she’s going.

Mrs. Owens bent down to the baby and extended her arms. Come now, she said, warmly. Come to Mama.

To the man Jack, walking through the graveyard towards them on a path, his knife already in his hand, it seemed as if a swirl of mist had curled around the child, in the moonlight, and that the boy was no longer there: just damp mist and moonlight and swaying grass.

He blinked and sniffed the air. Something had happened, but he had no idea what it was. He growled in the back of his throat, like a beast of prey, angry and frustrated.

Hullo? called the man Jack, wondering if perhaps the child had stepped behind something. His voice was dark and rough, and there was an odd edge to it, as if of surprise or puzzlement at hearing himself speak.

The graveyard kept its secrets.

Hello? he called, again. He hoped to hear a baby cry or utter a half-word, or to hear it move. He did not expect what he actually heard, a voice, silky smooth, saying,

Can I help you?

The man Jack was tall. This man was taller. The man Jack wore dark clothes. This man’s clothes were darker. People who noticed the man Jack when he was about his business—and he did not like to be noticed—were troubled, or made uncomfortable, or found themselves unaccountably scared. The man Jack looked up at the stranger, and it was the man Jack who was troubled.

I was looking for someone, said the man Jack, slipping his right hand back into his coat pocket, so the knife was hidden, but there if he needed it.

In a locked graveyard, at night? said the stranger.

It was just a baby, said the man Jack. I was just passing, when I heard a baby cry, and I looked through the gates and I saw him. Well, what would anyone do?

I applaud your public-spiritedness, said the stranger. Yet if you managed to find this child, how were you planning to get out of here with it? You can’t climb back over the wall holding a baby.

I would have called until someone let me out, said the man Jack.

A heavy jingling of keys. Well, that would have been me, then, said the stranger. I would have had to let you out. He selected one large key from the key ring, said Follow me.

The man Jack walked behind the stranger. He took his knife from his pocket. Are you the caretaker, then?

Am I? Certainly, in a manner of speaking, said the stranger. They were walking towards the gates and, the man Jack was certain, away from the baby. But the caretaker had the keys. A knife in the dark, that was all it would take, and then he could search for the child all through the night, if he needed to.

He raised the knife.

"If there was a baby, said the stranger, without looking back, it wouldn’t have been here in the graveyard. Perhaps you were mistaken. It’s unlikely that a child would have come in here, after all. Much more likely that you heard a nightbird, and saw a cat, perhaps, or a fox. They declared this place an official nature reserve, you know, thirty years ago, around the time of the last funeral. Now think carefully, and tell me you are certain that it was a child that you saw."

The man Jack thought.

The stranger unlocked the side gate. A fox, he said. They make the most uncommon noises, not unlike a person crying. No, your visit to this graveyard was a mis-step, sir. Somewhere the child you seek awaits you, but he is not here. And he let the thought sit there, in the man Jack’s head for a moment, before he opened the gate with a flourish. Delighted to have made your acquaintance, he said. And I trust that you will find everything you need out there.

The man Jack stood outside the gates to the graveyard. The stranger stood inside the gate, and he locked it again, and put the key away.

Where are you going? asked the man Jack.

There are other gates than this, said the stranger. My car is on the other side of the hill. Don’t mind me. You don’t even have to remember this conversation.

No, said the man Jack, agreeably. I don’t. He remembered wandering up the hill, that what he had thought to be a child had turned out to be a fox, that a helpful caretaker had escorted him back out to the street. He slipped his knife into its inner sheath. Well, he said. Good night.

A good night to you, said the stranger whom Jack had

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