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Coraline

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Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial Reviews for this product are not available at this time.

Author Information

Bio of Neil Gaiman

Bestselling author Neil Gaiman has long been one of the top writers in modern comics, and has also penned many books for readers of all ages, including American Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline, and M Is for Magic. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers, and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. He has written multiple New York Times bestselling books, and is a Hugo, Nebula, Bram Stoker, SFX, and Locus Award winner. He has also worked in support of First Amendment rights, and was awarded the Defender of Liberty Award in August 1997 by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund for his efforts. Born and raised in England, Neil now lives near Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has somehow reached his forties and tends to always need a haircut.

Customer Reviews

  • 4 stars out of 5Interesting but spooky for young children

    Posted March 08, 2009 by Mr.War, LA

    I found this to be a remarkable story by Neil Gaiman and I recommend it, the only thing that should be noted is that I do not think it is really appropriate for young children as it is a somewhat creepy tale.

  • 4 stars out of 5Strangely eerie...

    Posted March 16, 2009 by Geoff Spakes, Erie, CO

    I was prompted to read this book after seeing the movie with my daughter and after their class read it as well. If you've seen the movie and enjoyed it, you'll like the book as well. It's a little eerie and at some points may even be a little intense for some younger readers; it wasn't too much for my 10 year old, but each will have to judge for themselves.

    Regardless, a good entertaining short read for an adult.

Additional Info

Imprint

HarperCollins

Filesize

1.99 MB

Number of Pages

176

eBook ISBN

9780061187506

Awards

  • American Library Association Notable Books for Children
  • Arizona Young Reader's Award
  • Book Sense Book of the Year
  • Bram Stoker Awards
  • British Science Fiction Association Awards
  • Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award
  • Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award
  • Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award
  • Georgia Children's Book Award
  • Golden Archer Award (Wisconsin)
  • Hugo Awards
  • International Horror Guild Awards
  • Locus Awards
  • Massachusetts Children's Book Award
  • Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature
  • Nebula Awards
  • Publishers Weekly Best Children's Books
  • School Library Journal Best Books of the Year
  • Sequoyah Book Award
  • Volunteer State Book Award
  • World Fantasy Awards

Excerpt from: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Chapter One

Fairy Tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten
-- G.K. Chesterton.

Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.

It was a very old house -- it had an attic under the roof and a cellar under the ground and an overgrown garden with huge old trees in it.

Coraline's family didn't own all of the house, it was too big for that. Instead they owned part of it.

There were other people who lived in the old house.

Miss Spink and Miss Forcible lived in the flat below Coraline's, on the ground floor. They were both old and round, and they lived in their flat with a number of ageing highland terriers who had names like Hamish and Andrew and Jock. Once upon a time Miss Spink and Miss Forcible had been actresses, as Miss Spink told Coraline the first time she met her.

"You see, Caroline," Miss Spink said, getting Coraline's name wrong, "Both myself and Miss Forcible were famous actresses, in our time. We trod the boards, luvvy. Oh, don't let Hamish eat the fruit cake, or he'll be up all night with his tummy."

"It's Coraline. Not Caroline. Coraline," said Coraline.

In the flat above Coraline's, under the roof, was a crazy old man with a big moustache. He told Coraline that he was training a mouse circus. He wouldn't let anyone see it.

"One day, little Caroline, when they are all ready, everyone in the whole world will see the wonders of my mouse circus. You ask me why you cannot see it now. Is that what you asked me "

"No," said Coraline quietly, "I asked you not to call me Caroline. It's Coraline."

"The reason you cannot see the Mouse Circus," said the man upstairs, "is that the mice are not yet ready and rehearsed. Also, they refuse to play the songs I have written for them. All the songs I have written for the mice to play go oompah oompah. But the white mice will only play toodle oodle, like that. I am thinking of trying them on different types of cheese."