The Graveyard Book

Chu, a young panda, could hold his havoc-causing sneeze while at the library and even while dining but not at the circus. Expressive illustrations and few words are needed to highlight the chaos, its humorous results, and Chu’s continued warm place in his family.

When Coraline and her family move into a new house, she finds a mysterious otherworld on the other side of one of the house’s many doors. Narnia, however, this is not. The creepy characters of this other dark world lead Coraline on a number of spine-tingling adventures, but readers will be enchanted by Coraline’s courage and resourcefulness.

The children’s mother is away but finally they separate their dad from his newspaper to go out for milk. When he returns with it, father regales the narrator and his sister with his adventures that start when he goes out for milk and is taken by aliens but always saves the milk! Droll line illustration combines with exaggeration for a very funny tall tale.

You know what they say: “If the wolves come out of the walls, it’s all over.” So, when Lucy hears wolves crinkling, crackling, sneaking, creeping, and crumpling in the walls, she futilely attempts to warn her family. Once out of the walls, the wolves proceed to dance “wolfish dances up the stairs and down again” until Lucy, with the help of her pig-puppet, bravely leads her family to confront their fears. Gaiman crafts a tale of surreal and sinister adversaries who are bested by a young girl’s determination to set things right. The slyly deadpan text, rich in language and wordplay, never doubts Lucy’s capacity to manage the chaos, but McKean’s illustrations take the day, creepily animating the world inside Lucy’s walls.