TITLE: Coraline
AUTHOR: Neil Gaiman
PAGES: 162
The Pink Palace is Coraline’s new home, and because Coraline is an explorer, she has already discovered quite a few things about it. There is an old well that is supposedly a mile or two deep; a fairy ring surrounded by toadstools that smell awful if you step on one; an old man who tells her he is training his mice to perform their own circus; two elderly ladies who were once big stars on the stage (but now stay home reading tea leaves and doting on their three pet dogs)…and a mysterious door that leads to a brick wall. For an explorer, these are all amazing finds, particularly the door, but no one will listen to Coraline. Her mother and father are inattentive and make her eat mysterious gourmet food for dinner. So when Coraline finds herself dreaming of walking through the door and being greeted by someone who calls herself the Other Mother, the little girl can’t believe her luck. Because the Other Mother and Other Father seem to love her so much more than her true parents do…but what they ask of her in return may be far more costly than she could ever imagine.
My first question is, how is this a children’s book??? If I had read this as a child, I would have been scared to death and sleeping with all my lights on for weeks…or maybe I’m just exceptionally cowardly, hahaha. In any case, Coraline is bracketed for the little ones, but the tale itself is compelling enough for the older set. I wanted to read this before we went to see the recently released movie (which, btw, was awesome in 3D!), and now that I’ve seen both, I really have to say that the book was far more eerie; the movie was clearly adjusted for an audience of children. In the novel, Coraline’s fight to free herself, her parents, and the souls of the Other Mother’s past victims is much more terrifying. There are layers of meaning within the strange world’s illusions and shadowy monsters, shadows that are a nameless fear for a child, but contain different dimensions for adults. The story has more weight, is more serious, with consequences that aren’t slightly masked as they are in the movie version. The Other Mother’s previous conquests did not merely disappear or fall asleep—they died, and they will never come back. Like I said, these are heavy concepts for a child to understand, so I’m not entirely sure I would have a child read this…haha. Coraline is a dark fairytale that will have you wondering just what lies behind the doors in your own sleeping house…
