The Graveyard book, tells the story of Nobody Owens, who has the good fortune to crawl into a nearby graveyard, thus escaping the grisly fate that befell the rest of his family. Given the Freedom of the Graveyard, and therefore its protection, Nobody (Bod for short) is brought up by the ghosts of the graveyard and another figure, no less mysterious for not being a ghost, his guardian, Silas.
The book tells the story of Bods upbringing by the ghosts, his early ventures into the outside world, and, eventually how he comes to face the organisation responsible for the deaths of his family before leaving the graveyard forever to take his place in the world of the living.
As with all Gaiman's work this is a lovingly crafted piece with vivid characters that will seem real to not only the child but to the adult. Though this is a work primarily aimed at older children, adults will find themselves unable to put the book down. Illustrated by Chris Riddell, the plates at the beginning of each chapter only add to the mystery of the tale, revealing little but adding to the three dimensional nature of the characters.