The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman, the author of the popular book Coraline, gives us this tale of a young boy named Nobody Owens. Nobody is raised by the spirits and ghost of a graveyard after his family is murdered by a mysterious and scary man named, Jack. The Newbery Medal winning book starts off a bit scary with the murder of Nobody's family but I believe it is written in a way that gives the reader a feel of the horrible situation without being too graphic...no gory details are given they are only alluded to. Nobody is only an infant at the start of the book. He escapes his would be assassin by climbing out of his crib and wandering out the open door and into the graveyard where the ghost of his recently deceased mother asks the spirits of the graveyard to watch over him. Nobody grows up in the graveyard and has many adventures with ghouls, a witch, and human bullies. As he grows older he begins to understand and learn why he lives in the graveyard and the truth about his family.

http://www.thegraveyardbook.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/books/review/Edinger-t.html