New NPR Kids' Book Club

I came across a link tonight that made me almost giggle.  NPR now has a kids' book club, called the Back Seat Book Club.

Why did I want to giggle?  Because of pure happiness.  With all the adult book clubs out there, I have been looking for something for my children.  They love reading, but it's hard to get recommendations for them.  Yes, I do research at Common Sense Media and Scholastic websites, but what I want is something more.  And more is what a kid (and a parent) gets with this latest NPR offering.

The book club hooks into All Things Considered.  Parents and kids aged 9-14 are encouraged to read the book, either separately or together.  Then the young readers (i.e. the kids) can send questions in to the author, who appears on the show at the end of each month to chat about their book and answers some of the questions.

October's selection is "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman.  I love this book!  After reading the book, you can go to the submission page, and send in your thoughts and questions to Mr. Gaiman.  He is scheduled to be on All Things Considered this Friday.  Plus, Mr. Gaiman reads the book in videos and offers a fan kit at his own website.  

For those who have never read "The Graveyard Book", the protagonist is a young boy whose family is murdered by a man named Jack at the beginning of the book.  The young toddler escapes to a graveyard, where the inhabitants (ghosts as well as a few other creatures) raise him.  

Review: "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book on the recommendation of a local bookstore employee, and I am quite glad I listened.

"The Graveyard Book" follows the growing years of a young boy who wanders into a graveyard as a toddler. Someone just murdered his entire family, and wants to kill the boy as well. The ghosts in the graveyard must protect the boy, and teach him how to live.

Personally, I like the irony in learning to live from the dead.

Neil Gaiman provides more than entertainment here. He stretches his imagination (and the reader's) to envision a world just beneath our world. The shades of the living seem more alive than the living, though in the end the ghosts remain outside of time, unable to change and grow the way the living people do.

I found this book thought provoking, enticing, and almost addictive. I recommend this book to anyone over the age of 9 who likes a good story, and can suspend their disbelief.


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