It's Newberry Time

It's that time of year again. The time when my friend spends vast amounts of time and energy furthering her quest to read every book that has ever won a Newberry (award or honor).

And she's inspired me. She printed me off a list a couple of years ago and I dutifully marked all the ones I'd read. (No, I'm not sure where my list is at the moment.... it's here somewhere.)

And now I pay attention when the new winners are announced. And I'm pretty proud of myself, because I've finished reading the winner before her.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
4 stars

Okay, so here's my problem with this book-- like Natasha at Maw Books, I hated the illustrations. I actually like the cover, but I was so not impressed by the illustrations.

Now that I've got that off my chest... I really enjoyed the book. It didn't end up being as dark as I thought it would be. I mean, okay, he grows up in a graveyard, but Bod actually has a pretty good life. Not in the conventional sense, maybe, but all-in-all, it's good. He's loved, he's protected, he's taught... what more can you give your child? I thought it was a good story.

My only bone to pick with the author-- I didn't feel like there was enough of an explanation of why his family was killed. Maybe I missed something, but I didn't see a real full, satisfying account of what was going on. Now, I'm actually not positive that that's required, but I'm a little CDO (that's obssessive/compulsive disorder, but alphabetically as it should be) and it bugged me.

Over all, I liked it. Not something I want to read to Boo, but hey. In a few years, sure, why not.