1. "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman

I know plenty of people who think Neil Gaiman is amazing, but I'm a bit more ambivalent. Half the time I think he's amazing, and half the time I feel like he's overrated. I did not, for example, find Coraline deliciously creepy, as many others did. So I had mixed feelings about reading The Graveyard Book, but I decided to give it a try anyway. I'm glad I did: It turned out to be satisfying, quirky, thought-provoking, and, yes, deliciously creepy.

Our hero is young Nobody Owens, known as Bod, who crawls into a graveyard one night as the rest of his family is being murdered in their beds. (The killer carelessly left the front door open, allowing the toddler to escape.) Adopted by ghosts and raised under the guardianship of the graveyard's resident vampire, Bod grows up protected from the man who killed his family. Various residents of the graveyard teach him history, reading, writing, and other academic subjects, as well as more esoteric skills such as Fading, Haunting, and Dreamwalking. Bod is a typical boy, but his coming-of-age adventures include being captured by ghouls, finding ancient treasure buried in a hillside, and befriending the ghost of a witch. Finally, Bod must leave the graveyard to confront the evil that left him orphaned.

I do wish Gaiman had fleshed out his villains a bit more, but they're original and entertaining. Bod is a likable, noble, and sympathetic hero, and the denizens of the graveyard make for a diverse, often funny, very human cast. And of course, although I knew what was going to happen at the end, I still cried a little. But that's me.

The Graveyard Book was my Halloween read, a young adult book that offers plenty of appeal to so-called grownups as well. Heartily recommend!