Hello and welcome to HISD's Book Talks.
My name is Julie Peters and I'm a member
of the ELA Curriculum and Development
team. Today I'd like to highlight The
Graveyard Book for you and I'd like to
start by reading a little bit to you.
Chapter 1: How Nobody Came to the
Graveyard. There was a hand in the
darkness and it held a knife. The knife
had a handle of polished black bone and
a blade finer and sharper than any
razor. If it sliced you, you might not
even know you had been cut, not
immediately. The knife had done almost
everything it was brought to that house
to do
and both the blade and the handle were
wet. The street door was still open, just
a little, where the knife and the man who
held it had slipped in and wisps of
nighttime mist slithered and twined into
the house through the open door. The man,
Jack, paused on the landing. With his left
hand he pulled a large white
handkerchief from the pocket of his
black coat and with it he wiped off the
knife and his gloved right hand which
had been holding it then he put the
handkerchief away. The hunt was almost
over. He had left the woman in her bed,
the man on the bedroom floor, the older
child in her brightly colored bedroom
surrounded by toys. That only left the
little one, a baby
barely a toddler to take care of. One
more and his task would be done. That
toddler is a boy named Nobody Owens, or
Bod for short. Nobody is a normal boy
who leads a very unusual life. When his
whole family is murdered by a mysterious
killer named Jack, he's able to escape
into a graveyard where he will end up
spending the rest of his childhood.
Nobody spends his days and nights
surrounded by ghosts, witches, werewolves,
and a mysterious Guardian named
Silas who was neither dead nor alive. Bod
learns many things from the other
inhabitants of the graveyards.
He even acquires special abilities like
the ability to see in the dark and the
ability to fade which allows him to be
unseen by mortals. The Graveyard Book has
won many prestigious awards including
the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the
Newbery Medal. I hope you learned a lot
about The Graveyard Book. Perhaps it's
the right book for you, but if not, stay
tuned for the next HISD Book Talk and
we'll help you find your perfect match.
