Warning: Spoilers!!!!

 

The Man Jack breaks into a house and murders a mother, father, and young girl. The baby escapes to the graveyard before The Man Jack can kill him. Mr. and Mrs. Owens, ghosts in the Graveyard, agree to look after the baby and the citizens of the graveyard, after a visit from The Lady on the Grey, decide to give Bod The Freedom of the Graveyard. The Freedom of the Graveyard includes: 1. the right of abode; 2. the ability to see in the dark; 3. the ability to go places the living can't (like through walls); and 4. the eyes of the living slip from you (you're virtually invisible).

 

Silas agrees to be Bod's guardian because he can leave the graveyard to get food whereas the rest of the graveyard inhabitants can't. Silas teaches Bod the alphabet and how to read and teaches him other things he should know as well.