The Graveyard Book.  Finished 4-25-20, 4.25/5 stars, older kids tale, 312 pages, pub. 2008

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a perfectly normal boy. Well, he would be perfectly normal if he didn’t live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the world of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard: the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer; a gravestone entrance to a desert that leads to the city of ghouls; friendship with a witch, and so much more.

But it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks, for it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already killed Bod’s family.      from Goodreads

I’ve talked before about my fascination with cemeteries and their appeal to me in the way they can make you honor history and evaluate life at the same time.  So, why did it take me so long to read this Newbery Medal, Hugo Award, Locus Award and Carnegie Medal winner?  I don’t know, but I’m glad I picked it up for the read-a-thon a few weeks ago.

When a toddler escapes his home as a killer murders his parents and sister, he makes his way to the graveyard.  Once there he is found by Mrs. Owens who is touched by the dead spirit of the child’s mother and she is determined to raise and protect the boy.  There is discussion among the ghosts and she and her husband are allowed to raise the boy as their own.  They must rely on the protection and guardianship of Silas, the caretaker of the graveyard.  Mrs. Owens gives the boy the name of Nobody and he finds a home.

The graveyard and  the spirits that live there are perfection.  Silas?  My favorite vampire ever.  Nobody has the run of the graveyard and does go out into the real world, even attending a real school for a short time.  But the graveyard holds all of the excitement,  vampires, werewolves, witches, ghouls, ghosts, and, best of all, a girl.  There is also, of course, the problem that the murderer is still looking for him.

I loved the spirit of and spirits in this book.  It was a perfect late night read.  It is a children’s book, but I don’t know what age would be appropriate since I think it’s a little dark for the younger set.  Gaiman found The Jungle Book as an early inspiration.  The chapters are set two years apart and there are eight of them.  I was mostly sad at the end, but hopeful that Nobody Owens is out there somewhere living his best life.

Mount Vernon Love Story. Finished 4-25-20, 3.5/5 stars, historical fiction, 223 pages, pub. 1968

Always a lover of history, Mary Higgins Clark wrote this extensively researched biographical novel and titled it Aspire to the Heavens, after the motto of George Washington’s mother. Published in 1969, the book was more recently discovered by a Washington family descendant and reissued as Mount Vernon Love Story. Dispelling the widespread belief that although George Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, he reserved his true love for Sally Carey Fairfax, his best friend’s wife, Mary Higgins Clark describes the Washington marriage as one full of tenderness and passion, as a bond between two people who shared their lives — even the bitter hardship of a winter in Valley Forge — in every way. In this author’s skilled hands, the history, the love, and the man come fully and dramatically alive.   from Goodreads

Mary Higgins Clark’s love for George Washington shines through in this, her first, book.  I enjoyed learned more about young Washington’s life through the eyes of a romantic.  While she covered the necessary benchmarks of his rise to greatness she also infused these episodes with feeling.  How did he feel about the pock marks on his face after small pox?  How did he feel after his step daughter died and his Patsy was grieving?  Did he really love his wife or was she just a stand in?

I think the fact that this was her first book was evident in the way the story didn’t really have a lot of tension or excitement to keep me turning the pages. This can be excused because Washington is always going to be of interest so the interest was there to continue, but just looking at the storytelling it was a bit lacking.

There was lots of great background and some new insight for me.  I might look at this as a gateway or a teaser for those who don’t know a lot about Washington or how he was in love with his best friend’s girl.  It will have you wanting to know more.  And you will forever think of Martha as Patsy.