Coraline
by Neil Gaiman
(Click here)
Book Summary Information
Author: Neil GaimanIllustrator: Dave Mckean
Edition: Kindle Edition
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Kindle eBook
Published: 2009-10-06
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: HarperCollins
Book Reviews of Coraline
Book Review: Alice Skellington
Summary: 5 Stars
Question: What would you get if Alice Liddell married Jack Skellington?
Answer: CORALINE
CORALINE is a deliciously creepy odyssey which starts with a young girl's boredom and ends with her being appreciative of her own backyard. Figuratively and literally. It is a well-told tale reminiscent of Through the Looking Glass, The Wizard of Oz, and Hansel and Gretel. What I particularly liked about the tale was that CORALINE's parents are alive and remain so from beginning to end. Yeah for living parents!
When first we see CORALINE(not Caroline, as she has to remind folks), she's bored. She lives in an apartment with her mother and father, both of whom work from home but can't give her the attention she craves. She tries visiting the old Vaudevillian ladies who live upstairs as well as the crazy old man who trains the mice, but she just doesn't understand them. Huh. Then she finds the key and the door, and the passage beyond that's sometimes there and sometimes not. The old man says that the mice have a message for her: don't enter the passage. If only CORALINE had listened.
What CORALINE finds beyond that passageway is what makes this story interesting. It's what makes all classic fairytales interesting. Temptation, morality, determination, and heroism, all wrapped up like a spooky burrito with a side order of eerie dipping sauce.
The story is nicely edited, keeping the reader turning pages and wanting to know what happens next. In fact, once I finished the book, I went looking for the movie. Unfortunately, it has already left theaters and not yet made it to store shelves. I'll just have to keep my button-eyes peeled for it!
Summary of Coraline
The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring....
In Coraline's family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close.
The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.
Only it's different.
At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there's another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.
Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.
Critically acclaimed and award-winning author Neil Gaiman will delight readers with his first novel for all ages.
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
Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic Books
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Leon and the Spitting Imageby Allen Kurzweil
Greenwillow Books; Published: 2005-05-10; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $31.89
The Magician's Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia)by C. S. Lewis
HarperCollins; Published: 2005-05-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
The Last Battle (Narnia)by C. S. Lewis
HarperCollins; Published: 2005-05-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.49
Price in other shops:
The Fairies of Nutfolk Woodby Barb Bentler Ullman
Katherine Tegen Books; Published: 2006-05-23; Library Binding; Book
Best price: $14.60
Price in other shops:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factoryby Roald Dahl
HarperFestival; Published: 2002-10-22; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $20.70
Price in other shops:
The Horse and His Boy (Narnia)by C. S. Lewis
HarperFestival; Published: 2002-11-26; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $3.22
Price in other shops:
Open Me...I'm a Dogby Art Spiegelman
HarperCollins Children's Books; Published: 1997-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $271.87
Ella Enchanted (Newbery Honor Book)by Gail Carson Levine
HarperCollins; Published: 1997-04-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.14
Price in other shops:
Only You Can Save Mankind (Johnny Maxwell Trilogy)by Terry Pratchett
HarperCollins; Published: 2006-07-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.42
Price in other shops:
The Graveyard Bookby Neil Gaiman
Harper Collins Publishers; HarperCollins; Published: 2008-09-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.84
Price in other shops:
Odd and the Frost Giantsby Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins; Published: 2009-09-10; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Price in other shops:
Alice in Wonderlandby Lewis Carroll
Petra Books; Published: 2010-02-26; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Price in other shops:
InterWorldby Neil Gaiman, Michael Reaves
HarperCollins; Published: 2009-10-13; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Price in other shops:
American Godsby Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins e-books; Published: 2009-10-13; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Price in other shops:
Good Omensby Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
HarperCollins e-books; Published: 2011-06-28; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Price in other shops:
Anansi Boysby Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins e-books; Published: 2009-10-13; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Price in other shops:
M Is for Magicby Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins; Published: 2009-10-06; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Price in other shops:
Neverwhereby Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins e-books; Published: 2009-03-17; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Price in other shops:
Stardustby Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins e-books; Published: 2009-10-13; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Price in other shops:
The Graveyard Bookby Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean
HarperCollins; Published: 2008-09-18; Kindle Edition; eBooks
Price in other shops: