the writer has used personification in the graveyard book. he shows this when he writes the knife has done almost everything it came to the house to do. in this he wants us to think the knife means a lot to the person and that he cares for it. with that line it doesn’t say that the knife meant a lot to him but he says it done almost everything it came to the house to do. it like if i said johnny has done almost everything it came to the house to do. there both relating to johnny or the knife as something that has a m,ind of his own and only a human has that.