fact, Gaiman deliberately mirrored the title and content of Kipling's work because it is a story he enjoyed and wanted to transform in his characteristic spooky style.

Both stories feature boys who are orphaned in early life but adopted into a surrogate family. For Mowgli, of The Jungle Book, his new family is more a pack of animals, including wolves, a bear, and a panther. For Bod, of The Graveyard Book, his surrogate family are the ghosts who dwell in the graveyard. In both stories, the boys are cared for and learn special skills from their new families. Though they do not live in human society, they learn to get on well enough. Both Bod and Mowgli do have some encounters with other humans and are apparently able to socialize in an appropriate way. 

The nature of the antagonist in both stories is very similar-- the fear that the one who orphaned the boys will return. Mowgli and his animal family are constantly evading the tiger Shere Khan, who is believed to have killed Mowgli's human family. For Bod, "the man Jack" has returned to hunt him down. In both, the protagonist overcomes their would-be killer. 

In the end, both Bod and Mowgli decide that they cannot live among their strange, surrogate families for ever. Bod's experiences at human school and brief friendships with other human children, as well as Mowgli's brief adoption into a human village, has shown them that there is more to life waiting for them. Even if it means giving up their supernatural or animal powers, both boys decide that their place is among other humans like them.

Three of the seven stories that make up The Jungle Book are about Mowgli, the man-cub. The other four are animal tales with different characters and plots. The Graveyard Book follows some of the main plot elements of the three Mowgli stories.

In a 2009 interview with The New York Times, Neil Gaiman recalls how he put together the idea of a graveyard and The Jungle Book some two decades before The Graveyard Book was published. Inspired by watching his then five-year-old son calmly riding his tricycle in a graveyard across the street from his home, Gaiman came up with the idea of writing “something a lot like The Jungle Book” with the setting of a graveyard instead of a jungle (“The Graveyard Book Wins Newbery Medal,” by Motoko Rich, The New York Times, January 26, 2009). The two works have parallel titles.

Like Mowgli in The Jungle Book, Nobody (Bod) Owens is orphaned at a young age due to the actions of an evil-doer. Mowgli is adopted by a wolf family, while Bod is adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Owens, a ghost couple. The murderous Shere Khan the tiger plays an analogous role to “the man Jack,” and both menace their respective protagonists throughout the stories before meeting their own well-deserved ends.

Other similarities between the two books include the carrying off of the human protagonists by unruly members of their respective nonhuman worlds. Bod is carried away for a time by the foul Ghouls, while Mowgli is swept off by the wild and lawless Monkey People. Both boys come to realize the danger of their respective predicaments and are rescued by friends.

As they grow up, both Bod and Mowgli come to realize that they are meant to live among people, and both boys eventually leave behind their nonhuman families in order to re-enter human society.