Author Interviews

Neil Gaiman Turns His Grad Speech Into 'Good Art'

Neil Gaiman's new book is based on a speech he delivered to graduates of Philadelphia's University of the Arts. When life gets tough, he told them, "make good art." It's advice that served him well when he turned a failed '90s TV series into the "much-loved" novel Neverwhere.

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NPR's Backseat Book Club

Kids' Book Club: A 'Graveyard' Tour With Neil Gaiman

Welcome to NPR's Backseat Book Club, where author Neil Gaiman is here to answer your questions about The Graveyard Book. Gaiman explains how Nobody Owens, a young boy raised in a graveyard, learns the value of life from the dead.

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NPR's Backseat Book Club

Read 'Graveyard' With NPR's Backseat Book Club

Introducing a new NPR book club ... for kids! Our first book will be The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Young readers are invited to read the book and share their thoughts and questions with us. Just before Halloween, Gaiman will be on the program to answer questions from young listeners.

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Summer Books 2011

Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books

More than 5,000 of you nominated. More than 60,000 of you voted. And now the results are in. Explore the winners of NPR's Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy survey — an intriguing mix of classic and contemporary titles.

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Critics' Lists: Summer 2010

Zombies And Giant Squid: Summer's Monster Hits!

Tired of vampires? Here are five freaky summer reads featuring gods, monsters, aliens, mutants, pulsating brains, sword-canes, dirigibles and derring-do. Each one, says critic Glen Weldon, is enlivened by wit and wordplay — not weepy, bloodsucking introspection.

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Millions Of Book Club Readers, 140 Characters

There are plenty of online book clubs, but what about Twitter? Jeff Howe of Wired magazine is tweaking the One Book, One City phenomenon by trying to get millions of people to pick a novel and then discuss it on Twitter. Users voted, and soon they'll start reading the winner, Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

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Movies

Henry Selick, Keeping Stop-Motion Moving Ahead

Stop-motion animation has evolved a lot since the days of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Henry Selick's Coraline, based on the Neil Gaiman classic, pushes the form even further.

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Book Reviews

'Sandman 4': Good Night To Gaiman's Dream Lord

In this final volume of Neil Gaiman's collected Sandman books, Morpheus faces the Furies and pays the price for killing his own son. This may be the most emotionally complex finale in comics history.

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Books

Gaiman Wins Newbery For 'The Graveyard Book'

Fantasy writer Neil Gaiman is on a roll. He just received a Newbery Medal for his story, The Graveyard Book, about an unusual boy named Bod who's raised by ghosts and werewolves. Also, his novella Coraline has been made into a film that comes out in February.

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Book Reviews

Parenting Neil Gaiman Style: It Takes A 'Graveyard'

Ghosts adopt a boy after his parents are murdered. The Graveyard Book may have a macabre premise, but Gaiman's quaint and lovable spooks make this gentle story anything but grave.

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Author Interviews

Neil Gaiman's Ghostly Baby-Sitters Club

Neil Gaiman's new novel, The Graveyard Book, is the story of an orphan toddler adopted by dead people. Inspiration for the book came 23 years ago, says Gaiman, when he was watching his son ride a tricycle through a cemetery.

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Pop Culture

Biography Details the 'King of Comics'

In his new biography, Kirby: King of Comics, TV and comics writer Mark Evanier details the life and career of noted comic artist Jack Kirby, the co-creator of the Marvel Comics characters the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk and X-Men.

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Books

Our New Book Club Pick: Neil Gaiman's 'Anansi Boys'

This month, the Bryant Park Project Book club will be reading a novel by cult hero Neil Gaiman. Anansi Boys is the very tall tale of a hapless bookkeeper named Charlie Nancy, whose dreary life in London is turned upside when his father dies.

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