New @ the Library

New @ the Library
Check out The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman--you know him from Sandman and other graphic novels--and Coraline. The Graveyard Book just won the coveted Newbery Award for best children's book of 2008. But don't let the word 'children' fool you. This one is for teens, too. A toddler wanders out of the house just as the mysterious and lethal man we only know as Jack is methodically going through the house and murdering the entire family. Jack knows he has missed the baby and follows him into the graveyard. But the baby has already been awarded the protection of the graveyard and Jack can't find him. The baby is 'adapted' by Mr. & Mrs. Owens, who never had children while they were living. He also has a guardian--the only one in the graveyard who can come and go and can bring the baby food. He is not a ghost--but he certainly isn't human, either. And so the baby, called Nobody, or Bod, Owens grows up in the graveyard amid ghosts from ancient to not so ancient times as well as ghouls and other creatures of the night. But Jack and members of his order are determined to kill the child--they must before he reaches adulthood. And when Jack discovers where Bod is living....

In Ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley, Charlotte is determined to not let being dead keep her going to the senior dance with the boy of her dreams. In life she was invisible to almost everybody--death isn't much different. She has to cooperate with the other dead kids so they can all 'move on', but she can't let go of life until she fulfills her dream. She had a plan for her senior year and, until death came along, it was working--sort of. Whoever thought that a gummy bear could change things--well, choking on one....reviewed by Linda Johnsen