The inspiration for Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book came from observing his toddler son nonchalantly and comfortably pedaling his bicycle around a graveyard. He began exploring how a live boy would fare in the land of the dead, an outsider that balances on the line between worlds. He structured a story thematically similar to The Jungle Book: Baby Bod (short for Nobody) comes into the care of the ghostly Mr. and Mrs. Owens after his entire family is murdered, and spends his childhood years in the graveyard with ghosts and other spookies, learning the tricks of the otherworldly but able to pass where they are not. It’s a dark story, sometimes scary, but often whimsical and very sweet.