The Graveyard Book Wins the Newbery Medal - Congrats Neil!

Like many readers of comics, I've been a fan of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series since the early 90's. Delirium and Destruction are my favorite characters. I used to have a subscription at my local comic book store just so I would not miss a single issue of Sandman (and Catwoman and X-men before the mutant universe exploded into too many titles to collect), but I digress. Fast forward 10 years or so, I learned I had been accepted into the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop in San Diego to study with each and everyone of the fabulous faculty, including Neil.

Soon after I knew I was attending Clarion, I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It was perfect timing, as I planned to read at least one prose book written by each Clarion faculty. The Graveyard Book is a delightful tale of a boy named Nobody who grows up in a graveyard and is raised by ghosts. Because of his unusual upbringing, Nobody learns all sorts of useful skills. While at Clarion, Neil treated us and a packed audience at Mysterious Galaxy to a pre-publication reading of a chapter from The Graveyard Book. He is an excellent reader, even giving voices to the different characters.

Since The Graveyard Book won several Mock Newbery events, the fact that it received the Newbery Award is not a huge surprise to me. I think it was a bit of surprise to Neil, based on his blog entry, and thankfully he did not swear. In any case, today is the first day of the Chinese New Year, Year of the Earth Ox (appropriate for a book set in a graveyard, I think). What a nice way to celebrate the new year. Congrats to Neil!