Coraline

written by Neil Gaiman

Illustrations by McKean

Harper Collins, 2002

Genre: Children's fiction; fantasy; horror

Reading Level: ages 9 to 12

192 pages

Coraline is the story of a young girl who is bored with her life and feels ignored by her parents. The book starts out with an introduction to Coraline's family and their new house. It talks about the quirky neighbors; Misses Forcible and Spink, the retired performers, and the old man upstairs that used to work with the circus. Then the reader learns that Coraline is an explorer and on the warm sunny days she would explore outside, but one day it was raining and Coraline decided to explore the house. She found a small door that led to a brick wall. That same night Coraline woke to a scurrying sound that she followed to the little door, but again it was just a wall of brick. The next day Coraline goes to visit the women next door and they read her tea leaves and tell her that she is in danger and give her a small rock with a hole in it and tell her it will protect her. Later that day Coraline's mother leaves for the store and Coraline gets very bored and decides to open the little door, this time however there are no bricks just a small passageway. As Coraline enters the next room she realizes it is her own apartment and she is introduced to her "other" mother and "other father who look similar to her real mother and father except they have black buttons for eyes, so does every other living thing in the new world. Her other life seems perfect, she gets the food she likes and the toy she likes, and gets to explore as much as she wants. She meets a cat, sees a bunch of rats and visits her quirky neighbors in their creepy forms. The other mother and father want her to stay and tell her all that she has to do is stay is trade her eyes for black buttons. Coraline says no and decides to go back to her home. But Coraline's parents never came back and she see's them in a mirror where they say, "help us". So Coraline goes back though the little door and tells the other mother that she wants her parents back. The other mother tries to convince Coraline that they left her on purpose and tells her she's going back to bed. Coraline after talking to the helpful cat decides to challenge the other mother because she likes games. But before Coraline decides how to challenge the other mother she makes her mad and she locks Coraline behind the mirror where Coraline meets the ghosts of three children who say that the other mother took their souls and she will do the same to Coraline. Once Coraline is let out of the mirror, she challenges the other mother telling her that if Coraline can find the three children's souls and her parents than the other mother has to let her go, and if she doesn't she will stay with the other mother forever. The other mother agrees and Coraline begins searching. She finds the first child's soul in her other bedroom by looking through the rock with a whole in it and the soul is a glowing marble. The next one she finds in the Misses Forcible and Spink's theater and has to pry it from their hands. Because the other mother is upset with Coraline for finding two she tricks her into looking into a room that hid the other father, deformed and tortured by the other mother, he tries to attack her but Coraline escapes. She finds the last soul in the old man's apartment who turns out to be made of rats. Coraline notices that this other world is starting to lose form, and shape and seems even more unreal. Coraline knows, because of help from the cat that the other mother won't stick to her word so she takes the cat, finds that her parents are in a snow globe and tricks the other mother into letting her in the little door with her parents in the snow globe and the cat. When she gets on the other side, everything seems normal but in a dream the three children tell her that it's not over. The other mother's hand is in her world and is trying to get the key to the little door so she can get in. Coraline comes up with a plan and the other mother's hand and the key end up in the bottom of a very deep well, which Coraline blocks with big planks. She now goes completely back to normal, happy and ever appreciative of her life.

I would recommend this book to children who enjoy scary books and adventures.

I think that this book could be controversial because it is written for younger children but is pretty creepy and has some terrifying moments.

I actually really liked this book, i didn't think i would because of the movie, but i thought the book added a lot to the story. I liked the writing style and the unique and fantastical ideas. I also liked the pictures, though some of them creeped me out.

My rating: 4 out of 5