Coraline   By Neil Gaiman Release Date: Buy it Today! Random House Ratings Action Romance NONE Characters Overall Purchase on Amazon. Purchase at Powell’s. Find independent bookstores near you.

Coraline Jones lives in a house so big that her family shares the house with the crazy man upstairs and Miss Spink and Miss Forcible downstairs. An explorer at heart, she makes detailed study of the outside of the house, until a rainy day keeps her indoors. Puzzled by the locked door in the parlor, her mother opens it, and Coraline finds a brick wall staring back at her. The next night, her parents vanish, not returning home, and Coraline finds herself opening the door again, this time finding a black hallway. On the other side, she meets her other mother and other father and finds herself in a game where her soul is the prize and her parents’ lives are on the line. With the help of a stone with a hole in it and a talking black cat, Coraline will navigate the maze of the other world, and hopefully find her parents while saving the souls of three other children that the other mother has already devoured.

Coraline is an image driven book, and Neil Gaiman gives us an excellent tour through her new world. In addition to the story, illustrations by David McKean at the start of each chapter invite us even further into the other house. As a children’s book, it carries an excellent degree of creepiness, without actually being scary. It’s like the old Scary Story books that I read as a child, just enough to give you a jump, but not scary enough for nightmares.

Books and movies about middle-aged children (8-12) escaping their “boring” lives into a world of their imagination where danger and trails await them have become a genre of their own. Children love to imagine that there is another world that awaits them just around the corner, which is why these stories appeal to them. The age is important too, as eight to twelve are the years when we are beginning to “grow up”, yet we desperately want to hold onto the magic of childhood. Even grown-ups wish they could believe in Santa Claus, that there is someone in the world so nice and generous that they wish to simply give us presents. We also want to believe that there is something more to the world, a magic that we just haven’t discovered. That is why books like Coraline will continue to appeal to grown-ups and children alike.

An interesting aspect of the book is the use of imagery to move the story along. The “other” family and neighbors all have buttons for eyes, not seeing the world as Coraline, and while instead of mice, which children often see as harmless, the man upstairs has rats which provoke more fear from readers. Parallels between the two worlds are used a lot in the book, showing the similarities and differences between them, while also pointing out how a detail (like buttons instead of eyes) can so vastly change they way we view a person or object. We exist in a world were we expect things to look and act a certain way, and when things act and look outside of those parameters, that in itself will bring forth a feeling of fear.

The actual book doesn’t look like much. The copy I have features a picture of Coraline in a sort of wooden puppet style. The book is children’s size and only 168 pages. I always underestimated the book, never realizing what a gem was sitting unread on my shelf. Now I kind of want to go get the newest copy, a rather elegant looking book with silver script on a black cover.

Now the ending of the book felt slightly disappointing. On the one hand, Coraline shows some great ingenuity in her trap, but on the other, well, where is the other hand? The ending left some questions for me, so I’m not sure how I felt about it. Decide for yourself when you read it, because it certainly isn’t enough of a problem that you should avoid it.

Ratings Reasons:

Action 4 – the book is fast paced for the most part, which it has to be at that page length. I felt like my attention wandered sometimes, but not often enough to really put down the book.

Romance None – There just wasn’t any. Nothing wrong with that, but let’s not try to ship the little girl and the cat, okay?

Characters 4 – The nature of the books made the characters into caricatures, though very enjoyable and entertaining ones. I didn’t really feel like I got to know any of them, with the exception of Coraline, who was still a rather “every” girl.

Overall 4 ½ - This was a highly enjoyable, quick read. Enjoy it, savor it, and pass it on to a friend.

Extras:

In the same genre, you have a few movies to choose from: Labyrinth, Mirror Mask (also by Neil Gaiman), and Pan’s Labyrinth are all similar movies. An Indian in the Cupboard, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Alice in Wonderland both come to mind as books that involve children finding another world in their house. I’ve also been told by my editor that The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly is another similar and excellent book, using the same creepy fairtale feeling that Coraline employees so well.

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events will most likely also appeal to readers of Coraline. When I was younger I enjoyed many of Betty Ren Wright’s books, which include: The Dollhouse Murders, Ghosts Beneath Our Feet, A Ghost in the House, and many more.

Neil Gaiman has written quite a few books besides this, though I’ve only read his collection of short stories called Smoke and Mirrors. His other books include: American Gods, Neverwhere, Stardust (which I actually saw a quite good stage adaptation of), Anansi Boys, and Good Omens (co-written with Terry Pratchett). His most commonly known work though, is the comic book series, Sandman. The art might not be much, but the story is supposedly spectacular. If I could ever get someone to lend me a copy, I would love to read it.

Neil Gaiman has a very interesting website, including a page for Coraline . The site overall is informative and I especially liked reading “Meet Neil Gaiman,” which had a great FAQ and other features. The actual Coraline part though is rather vague on details, though it’s worth at least looking at once for the flash aspects of the page. Though I can’t help but wonder where the fourth marble comes from.

Loving Unshelved as much as I do, I must also point out the Book Club featuring Coraline.

On the movie front, there might someday be a movie for Coraline. It might be in 2008. Of course those of us who have ever awaited a movie off of a book, know that it could be a very long time before that movie actually gets made. At least the Internet Movie Database has a listing for it, which is a step in the right direction. It’ll be animated and seems to be starring quite a few big names, including Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher.

HarperTeen also has a video interview with Neil Gaiman about Coraline, and here you can find an essay and reading guide for Coraline.

Parents:

10+ While this book was creepy, I don’t think the average child will find it nightmare-inducing scary. If they like Lemony Snicket, or even just don’t have problems with some of the old Disney movies, like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White , they should be just fine with Coraline

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