I just need to say real quick that I've actually met Neil Gaiman at a book signing in St. Paul, Minnesota where my dad brought me along, although at the time I didn't really know who he was. I live less than an hour from his house where he's a bee-keeper. My uncle Bob is also a bee-keeper and has apparently spoke with Gaiman about the harvest season one time. Thought that was pretty nifty.

Anyway, I ended up reading The Graveyard Book instead of Anansi Boys because the story just intrigued me; the idea of an orphan being brought up by the dead just seems very clever and mysterious. I found it interesting then when we watched the DVD in class and he spoke about how he got the idea for the book by watching his little boy pedal his tricycle around the graveyard they lived by. When he then related his work as re-vamping (no pun intended) The Jungle Book, it just clicked after reading the book.

I thought I would just make some comparisons then between The Graveyard Book and The Jungle Book, besides the closeness of their titles. Instead of having wolves, monkeys, and tigers, Gaiman uses vampires, ghosts, and ghouls. Like in The Jungle Book, every chapter within the book is almost a story within itself; in this case Nobody is about two years older in each chapter. The think the idea is brilliant since children nowadays aren't scared of animals, and usually empathize with them. I didn't have very high expectations while reading this because it IS written to be intended for children, but I actually loved it. The only drawback I had was that since this is the case, the book is fairly clean and doesn't go too deep, which I think could be elaborated for an adult version. I would love it if he were expand on this book for adults.

On a side note, Neil Jordan (Interview with the Vampire, The Brave One, The Crying Game) was hired to write and direct the film adaption of Gaiman's children novel. The UK studio that did the visual effects for The Dark Knight will handle the visuals, and the cast will probably consist of well-known British actors, like for the Harry Potter franchise, and the lead character of Nobody Owens will be played by several unknown actors being him at different ages. I guess that's having some difficulty now thought since Miramax was going to produce it, but Miramax basically disappeared last fall. So there's still a chance it could happen if they can get financing.

Although, while reading the book, I could definitely see this done as an animated film, especially using stop-motion techniques like Gaiman's film-adaption of Coraline.

"We are all going to die. Might as well dance. Or better yet, read a book."
OR even better yet, read The Graveyard Book.