I've given up on listening to The Graveyard Book. While the accents are intriguing the reader is just too slow. My plan is to finish up by the end of November. How does everyone feel about that? I'm only halfway through the novel and I feel like I'm still in the exposition. WHERE IS THE RISING ACTION? WHAT IS THE PLOT? While the person at Barnes and Noble said there were allusions throughout I'm concerned that maybe she didn't know what an allusion is.... If she was talking about the Ghouls - technically those were just references to historical people not allusions. I'm still struggling with what I could actually teach through this novel. I promise to plow forward.
Is anyone enjoying this? Will it get better?
Now on the adult side I am reading two books I'm really enjoying. "Her Fearful Symmetry" by the same author as "The Time Traveler's Wife". Symmetry is spooky and entertaining. I'm really enjoying the characters; plus it's set in London - one of my favorite places. Another novel I'm reading, which is also set in London, is "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie". Very cute with a fun 11 year old protagonist. I might recommend it to some of my 8th grade female readers.
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I don't know if there is anything that you could teach through this novel other than the use of similes and metaphors, and maybe some inference skills (this book requires knowledge of fairy tales and certain expressions involving the name Jack). There is not much interesting material in terms of ethics, philosophical issues, and the like. Generally, dystopian novels are a great source of that kind of stuff, as they provide a safe way for the reader to experience an alternative kind of reality. Let me know if you are interested in talking about that some more - I have read oodles of dystopias from both sides of the big pond. (The ones from the UK tend to be a bit more devastating than the ones written by the American authors.)
I finished listening to The Graveyard Book about a week ago. At first, I was intrigued by the unique twist on the common plot of a young character losing his parents and being raised in unusual circumstances. I’ve ready many books that add magical or mythological elements, but this is the first time ghouls and a graveyard were a prominent part of the story. However, since I was unfamiliar with the “mythology” of this story, it made it harder to keep track of the characters.
The book didn’t really seem like a novel, it was more like a series of short stories about the same character. I was listening to the story, so I couldn’t flip back and reread parts if I got lost, but since each chapter was somewhat self contained, I could start fresh with the next chapter.
I think the story would have been more interesting if the Man Jack was a more prominent threat to Nobody. There were only a few points in the story that were suspenseful and I felt that Nobody was in danger. Also, the author also could have made the story more interesting by having Nobody be more aware that he would have to leave the graveyard when he grew up. Nobody was interested in the outside world, but he didn’t seem to be too concerned about someday living on his own.
I didn’t see much discussion material in this book. Nobody didn’t have to make any major moral choices.
The community of people living in the graveyard didn’t have any issues that you could compare and contrast to current events. For example, last year I read City of Ember, and I thought the author of that book did an excellent job of showing young people how corruption can develop and how well meaning people can make decisions based on prejudice and selfishness instead of logic.
Unlike the Percy Jackson or the Immortal Nicholas Flamel books, the fantasy elements didn’t introduce students to mythological characters and vocabulary that appear in other more advance literature.
Mary,
I agree with much of your commentary. I too am struggling with this book as a "novel". I plan on finishing it this weekend. Now I'm curious as to how this book won the Newberry? Didn't you love the accents on the C.D.?
I think The Graveyard had potential. I liked the idea of this graveyard group of characters adopting Bod and the exploration of their protecting him,taking responsibility for educating him,etc.What I lacked was any strong feeling for Bod. I never really connected with him as a character - when I read Hunger Games I did not necessarily like Katniss but you can bet I was pulling for her during the games and practically cheered at the end!I never really got beyond feeling bad for Bod in the first chapter.I think the story touched on a lot of areas (growing up with a tragic past,the difference someone caring about you can make,the challenges of friendships and facing our fears)but as a reader, I never really got to know Bod.
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