By: Neil Gaiman
Year: 2002
Genre: Children
Coraline lives with her preoccupied parents in part of a huge old house–a house so huge that other people live in it, too… round, old former actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible and their aging Highland terriers (”We trod the boards, luvvy”) and the mustachioed old man under the roof (”‘The reason you cannot see the mouse circus,’ said the man upstairs, ‘is that the mice are not yet ready and rehearsed.’”) Coraline contents herself for weeks with exploring the vast garden and grounds. But with a little rain she becomes bored—so bored that she begins to count everything blue (153), the windows (21), and the doors (14). And it is the 14th door that–sometimes blocked with a wall of bricks—opens up for Coraline into an entirely alternate universe. Now, if you’re thinking fondly of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you’re on the wrong track. Neil Gaiman’s Coraline is far darker, far stranger, playing on our deepest fears. And, like Roald Dahl’s work, it is delicious.
What’s on the other side of the door? A distorted-mirror world, containing presumably everything Coraline has ever dreamed of… people who pronounce her name correctly (not “Caroline”), delicious meals (not like her father’s overblown “recipes”), an unusually pink and green bedroom (not like her dull one), and plenty of horrible (very un-boring) marvels, like a man made out of live rats. The creepiest part, however, is her mirrored parents, her “other mother” and her “other father”—people who look just like her own parents, but with big, shiny, black button eyes, paper-white skin… and a keen desire to keep her on their side of the door. To make creepy creepier, Coraline has been illustrated masterfully in scritchy, terrifying ink drawings by British mixed-media artist and Sandman cover illustrator Dave McKean. This delightful, funny, haunting, scary as heck, fairy-tale novel is about as fine as they come. Highly recommended. (Ages 11 and older) —Karin Snelson
I found this book years ago, long before it became popular and long before it was made into the fantastically beautiful and creepy summer movie. I LOVED it at first reading. It was weird. It was creepy. It was a children’s book! Neil Gaiman shows that children can appreciate the creepy just as well as adults.
This was my first entry into the world of Neil Gaiman. It actually wasn’t until several years later that I picked up a paperback by some author and really liked it that I even realized they were by the same author. While I just can’t get into his original works, the Sandman series of graphic novels, Gaiman has become my favorite author. His stories are creepy, quirky and a little absurd. If I had the chance to meet him, I would just giggle like a school girl and blush while handing him a book to sign. My witty repartee would sound something like, “Eeep.”. Yeah, my daughters have the Jonas Brothers, I have Neil Gaiman.
Okay, let’s get off the freaky fan train and back to the book review. Coraline is a smart, sassy young woman. I think she’s probably late elementary/early middle school-aged. Her parents have work to do and have just moved into a new house with no other children Coraline’s age. So she goes exploring eventually to find a world that is exactly as she wants and where everyone’s focus is solely on her. But something is not quite right in this other house.
This is a scary book. Not slasher-horror movie scary, but it is scary. And not everyone likes it. My son read the book for the first time a few years ago. He loved it. My daughters read the book in their classes last year (3rd grade) and loved it (and I turned Zoe’s teacher on to Gaiman and created another fan!). My brother-in-law (an elementary school teacher) couldn’t read past the first few pages. He, obviously, did not love it. Like my previous review of “The Graveyard Book,” young kids should read this with an adult. While this is called a “children’s book” it is not for little kids.
And if you haven’t seen the movie, I recommend that as well! The director (who also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas) captures the creepiness of the book. Usually I don’t love movies that have been adapted from novels, but this one was great (even with some minor non-main plot changes). It was also beautifully done. Even if you don’t like the book, the movie is just amazing to watch (just ask my husband who doesn’t have the same great taste in fiction as I do).
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars