Neil Gaiman in the News

It has been quite a week for author Neil Gaiman!

It all started Monday morning, when he was informed that his recent work The Graveyard Book had won the Newbery Medal for 2009, placing him alongside a rather notable list of authors including Kate DiCamillo (The Tale of Despereaux), Patricia MacLachlan (Sarah, Plain and Tall), Katherine Paterson (Bridge To Terabithia), Madeleine L’Engle (A Wrinkle in Time), and many others.

I must say, it was fun watching his reactions on Twitter (you can follow him @neilhimself).  For example:

Thank you all for the congratulations. (Beams joyfully.) You can listen to the whole book for free at http://bit.ly/y8gk, by the way. 10:22 AM Jan 26th

Ah, yes, that last part is definitely true.  If, like me, you have yet to actually read The Graveyard Book, this would be a lovely solution, especially as Mr. Gaiman is a wonderful speaker/reader/person.  He has a phenomenal British accent and a gentle timbre to his voice, both of which make his readings quite pleasant for the ears.  Note also that as this online presentation of his book is actually a series of videos filming his appearances from his reading tour last fall, you can watch him read the book, not just listen to it. Fellow blogger and book aficionado Kim at Bold Blue Adventure attended one of these readings, and she’s got a post about that as well as her review of The Graveyard Book here.

As if this news and its accompanying whirlwind of interviews and appearances wasn’t enough, the film adaptation of Coraline is hitting theaters next week, so of course there’s another simultaneous cyclone of screenings, openings, interviews, and appearances for that.  Judging from his tweets and his blog, the poor guy seems to be teetering between bursting from excitement and imploding from exhaustion.

Thankfully, though, we readers and viewers don’t have to get left out of the fun.

For starters, Borders Backlot has kindly posted a series of videos (some featuring Mr. Gaiman) offering insight into the story of Coraline and the making of the film.  (The first of the videos is appropriately creepifying and is probably my favorite!)

Next…well, we are apparently quite fortunate.  In this day and age where so many media companies and publishers live (understandably) in fear of piracy, Harper Collins is kindly allowing us to not only hear The Graveyard Book in its entirety, but to read Coraline for free as well.  (I suppose it’s not much different than picking it up from the library, but with the film on the way, the reserve lists must be pretty long, and anyway, it’s cold outside, so who wants to leave the house?)

Finally, there’s a new, final trailer for Coraline.  That’s below.  Happy viewing/reading/listening!