The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The book opens in a rather macabre fashion with a lone assassin killing the main characters parents and older sister. The 18 month old child escapes from his cot and wanders down stairs and out of the front door unbeknown to the knife wielding assassin. Bod, as he becomes known, wanders along the high street and into a disused graveyard. By the time Jack, the assassin, eventually arrives at the graveyard gates Bod has been taken in under the protection of the resident ghosts and a between worlds guardian.
Now you do need to suspend your sense of realism to enjoy this novel but suffice to say that Bod, or Nobody Owens to give him his full name, is brought up by and educated by the ghosts and enjoys all manner of adventure both within the confines of the graveyard, in other lands and also in the real world where he attends school for a while. Jack never gives up trying to kill Bod and his guardian provides food and clothes for him and also offers protection when required.
This book was recommended to me when I was manning a book stall at a charity bazaar by someone browsing the stall and as it didn’t sell I bought it at the end. I am very glad that I did so and happily whiled away some summer evenings enjoying the rather far-fetched antics that Bod and his cohorts got up to. The book is wonderfully illustrated throughout by the excellent Dave Mckean.
Well worth a read if you should come across a copy.
The Graveyard Book is published by Bloomsbury and is available from Waterstones, Amazon and other good bookshops and online retailers.