Newbery Books Worth Reading: The Graveyard Books

One of my favorite Newbery winning books is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. If you know anything about Neil Gaiman, you know that his books are often strange and a little bit dark. But if you like that kind of thing, Neil Gaiman is the very best. And this is the very best of Neil Gaiman.

It's about a boy who's the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised and taught by its ghostly residents, the boy eventually has to face one of the terrors of the real world. It's surprising and magical and enchantingly different than most middle grade books out there.

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The Graveyard Book
By Neil Gaiman
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2008
Ages/Themes: Middle Grade Books, Newbery Winners, Newbery Books Worth Reading

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman

My first grader and I took a break from Magic Treehouse books and read Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman together. It's a silly story that a dad tells his kids to explain why it took him so long to go to the market to get the cereal for their milk. It's full of dinosaurs, aliens, pirates, time travel, and a volcano god.

I love Neil Gaiman and I'd read this book on my own before. My daughter thought it was fun and loved the silly illustrations. She also thought it was a little weird, which Neil Gaiman is. I like a little weird. And if you or your kids do too, you'll like this book. It's easy enough for some early readers to read alone, but it's fun to read together.

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Fortunately, the Milk
By Neil Gaiman
Illustrated by Skottie Young
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2014
Ages/Themes: Early Readers, Silly Stories

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman originally appeared in Rag & Bones: New Twists on Timeless Tales. Here it gets its own book and B&W illustrations.

From the title you can probably tell it is the story of Sleeping Beauty. But the sleeping sickness that takes over the castle begins to spread like a plague through the whole kingdom and even into neighboring towns. It is about to threaten the kingdom over the mountains, and so its queen goes on a journey to break the spell and cure the sleeping plague. She can make it through the land without falling asleep because she happens to be Snow White who survived a year of magical sleep herself. There are lots of fairy tale retellings, but this one is truly reimagined.

I loved this book. But it is not for everyone. Neil Gaiman's work is always interesting and beautiful, but also dark and haunting. If dark is not your thing (or your teen's thing), try a Shannon Hale fairy tale instead. But if you like things a little bit haunting, a little bit scary, and a little bit different, this may just be the perfect fairy tale book for you.
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The Sleeper and the Spindle
By Neil Gaiman
Illustrated by Chris Riddell
Publisher: Harper
Year: 2013
Info: B&W Illustrations
Ages: Young Adult
Themes: fairy tales
Source: our public library