Coraline
by Neil Gaiman

This is an excellent and very scary modern fairy tale by the award-winning, English-American author of Stardust and American Gods. Diana Wynne Jones compared it favorably to Alice in Wonderland, though the story that came to my mind (for some reason) was James Thurber’s The 13 Clocks. Witty, macabre, full of original imagery and a face-paced plot and a plucky heroine, this could really be the best book I’ve read since Order of the Phoenix.

I am at an awful loss as to what to say about the story without ruining the whole thing for you. Let’s say, for starters, that it really has more in common with Alice’s Adventures Through the Looking Glass than in Wonderland. It takes place in the present day, but it has elements of classic fairy tale combined with a pinch of horror and a dash of fantasy.

One cold, boring summer, Coraline Jones finds herself wishing for a better deal than living with her inattentive parents in part of a house that is divided into flats. Dividing their flat from the one next to it is a door, opened by a cold black key, that only leads to a blank brick wall. Sometimes. But sometimes, it leads to another flat just like Coraline’s where another mother and father want Coraline to stay with them. For various ghastly reasons, their offer isn’t very tempting. But Coraline soon discovers that it will take an awful lot of courage, luck, and cleverness to get back to the home and the family where she belongs.

Here’s a tantatlizing tid-bit that I hope the author will forgive me for quoting...

“How do I know you’ll keep your word?” asked Coraline.

“I swear it,” said the other mother. “I swear it on my own mother’s grave.”

“Does she have a grave?” asked Coraline.

“Oh yes,” said the other mother. “I put her in there myself. And when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back.”

Robbie Fischer
USA

Recommended Age: 12+

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