The Graveyard Book poses an unusual question, whether a boy can grow up successfully if he’s raised by ghosts. The book also asks, more deeply, whether any group of kindly oddballs can raise a child, and it answers decisively that what matters aren’t blood connections, but the ties of love and caring.

Through an almost magical combination of luck and destiny, the Dorian toddler escapes the massacre of his family and finds sanctuary at the graveyard at the top of the hill. Mrs. Owens and other ghosts there show compassion for the little boy and bring him into their community, where they protect and nurture him. Guided by guardian Silas—who learns that Bod is the prophesied destroyer of the Jacks of All Trades—the graveyard raises the boy for nearly 15 years.

The group not only manages to hide him in plain sight, but they also show their competence as caretakers and teachers uniquely positioned to protect the boy in ways that an ordinary, human adoptive family might easily fail to do. Bod’s situation is extremely unusual: Were he not under the ghosts’ protection, he might have been found and killed quickly, and the chance to vanquish the evil Jacks would be lost along with the tragic death of a wonderful person.