Hai! June here.

Frank and I have been talking about our next story arc, and we’ve decided to make it a sort of adventure story. There should be a bit more action than there was in the Berry Story, and a more complex plot, with a bit of Edemian history thrown in. We’ll also be using different characters ;)

(At this point I’d like to pretend we’re big-shot writers and say we cannot disclose anything more.)

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In other news, I have just finished The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I never was a fan of Kipling (the book was inspired by his classic The Jungle Book), but as Frank puts it, I’m a Neil Gaiman fangirl. I think the fact that I lined up for 8 hours to get his autograph in 2003 pretty much proves the point.

So anyway, the book. It’s about a boy who is raised by ghosts in a graveyard. His family was murdered when he was a baby, but he managed to escape by crawling to the graveyard across the street. His mother’s ghost shows up briefly and begs the dead-folk to protect the child, and the ghosts decided to keep him. They named him Nobody (Bod for short), and he grows up learning the ways and manners of the dead.

Meanwhile, his killer roams the city, eager to find Bod and finish his job. His guardians know about that much, so they keep him within the confines of the graveyard, where the powers of the dead can protect him. But as Bod grows up (and at one point meets a real live girl), he starts to realize that hiding won’t help him come to terms with his fate. He starts wanting to learn about his family, his identity, the murder, and the fact that he’s growing up and possibly getting to like other people.

I think what I liked most about the story is that Gaiman didn’t dwell too much on the villains. He was more interested in the hero, which is how you go about writing a children’s book anyway. He keeps the man Jack deliberately sketchy, with just enough detail to make you a little afraid of him (no point giving kids nightmares when the story’s about someone else). In that sense, the enemies are ghosts themselves, so Gaiman’s world is equally creepy in and out of the graveyard.

Some stories are so effective because they’re a natural metaphor for things we see in real life.  Neil Gaiman gives us a strong, unusual metaphor for something we all experience — wanting to get out of our comfort zone, grow up, and embrace life with all its dangers, murders and adventures. I mean, if you never venture out of your safe zone, everyone around you starts to feel like ghosts anyway.

In the end, The Graveyard Book makes you realise how cool it is to be a living person, the same way that Coraline makes you appreciate real life as opposed to your personal fantasies. I can’t say which one is better; I’d say you should read both books. Or maybe I’m just being my fan-girl self.

Have a great winter, everyone. :)