The American Library Association (ALA) has announced the award of this year's Newberry Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature to Neil Gaiman for The Graveyard Book, which tells the story of a child who is adopted and raised by ghosts. Gaiman might be best known at the moment for writing Coraline, now a Henry Selick-directed film that will be released on February 6:


The Graveyard Book has gotten rave reviews across the board. It's currently available in hardcover for $18, or $13 on Amazon.com. Gaiman's people have also done some truly excellent PR and recorded videos of Gaiman reading chapters from the book, and are offering them online for free viewing, in sequence. That's right, you can listen to him read the whole book. How cool is that? You can also buy an unabridged audio CD of the book on Amazon for around $18, on sale from a list price of about $30.

Gaiman also publishes an entertaining blog. Today he wrote about how he was able to prevent himself from copious swearing upon hearing the news of his Newberry win directly from the ALA's panel of judges. - Jeremiah