The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman is a great fantasy novel about a boy raised by ghosts named Nobody"Bod"Owens. One night, when he was a baby, a man(referred to as "The man Jack") stabbed his elder sister and parents, but Bod crawled out of the house and up the hill to explore. He was found by two ghosts (The Owenses) who were allowed to be his foster parents by the other ghosts. Bod's real guardian, Silas(the caretaker of the church near the graveyard) persuaded The man Jack to search for the baby somewhere else.

Bod is raised like a ghost and is given many abilities including the ability to move through solid objects. The book follows Bod in his adventures in and out of his graveyard. As a young boy, he becomes friends with a girl named Scarlett, but her mother convinces her that Bod is imaginary. Her family eventually moves. He learns many things from the ghost like haunting, dream-walking, and fading. Bod is eventually allowed to go to school, where he does well. He finds it difficult to make friends though. Later, Scarlett and her mother return to the town, but so does the man Jack, who wants to finish the task he failed at many years ago. 

The book is written in a very interesting way. For instance, Neil Gaiman never directly tells you what

Silas is (though he hints that Silas is a vampire), or what Bod's tutor, Miss Lepescu is either. At times, you can see a pattern similar to Rudyard Kipling's novel The Jungle Book. Altogether, it is a great read that I encourage you to try. 

I rate this book 7 out of 10.

Ender's Game

Ender's Game is about a classic sci-fi novel by Orson Scott Card about a 6 year old boy named Ender Wiggins. The books takes place in the future (about a hundred years). The IF(International Fleet), an organization created to protect the world against the alien buggers, is recruiting young kids to be trained in battle school. The best will go to command school, and the best there will be seen as choices to lead the army. They do this by installing monitors in children's necks at young ages to see if they are good enough.

Ender is a 6 year old boy who's siblings were both by the IF but were not good enough. They didn't pick his 10 year old brother, Peter, because Peter looks to destroy everything and is too violent. They didn't pick Ender's sister, Valentine, because she is too kind and considerate to lead an army. Ender's family was allowed to have a third child(a very rare thing) because they wanted to see if he would be a mix of his siblings. Peter, however, is envious of Ender and constantly bullies him.

Later he is chosen to go to battle school. Colonel Graff, of the International Fleet, immediately starts making things tough for Ender in every possible way. This is because he believes that Ender will eventually be able to lead the international fleet in war. Ender is isolated, and at times, the rules are changed specifically to impede his success. Ender however gets around all these obstacles and finds success.

This is a very interesting book, and some of the futuristic technology adds to the excitement. There is also a lot of zero gravity action, since most of the book takes place in space.

I rate this 8 out of 10