Coraline

August 4, 2003

When a girl moves into an old house, she finds a door leading to a world that eerily mimics her own, but with sinister differences. "An electrifyingly creepy tale likely to haunt young readers for many moons," wrote PW
in a boxed review. Ages 8-up.

Starred review from June 24, 2002
British novelist Gaiman (American Gods; Stardust) and his long-time accomplice McKean (collaborators on a number of Gaiman's Sandman graphic novels as well as The Day I Swapped My Dad for 2 Goldfish) spin an electrifyingly creepy tale likely to haunt young readers for many moons.After Coraline and her parents move into an old house, Coraline asks her mother about a mysterious locked door. Her mother unlocks it to reveal that it leads nowhere: "When they turned the house into flats, they simply bricked it up," her mother explains. But something about the door attracts the girl, and when she later unlocks it herself, the bricks have disappeared. Through the door, she travels a dark corridor (which smells "like something very old and very slow") into a world that eerily mimics her own, but with sinister differences. "I'm your other mother," announces a woman who looks like Coraline's mother, except "her eyes were big black buttons." Coraline eventually makes it back to her real home only to find that her parents are missing—they're trapped in the shadowy other world, of course, and it's up to their scrappy daughter to save them. Gaiman twines his taut tale with a menacing tone and crisp prose fraught with memorable imagery ("Her other mother's hand scuttled off Coraline's shoulder like a frightened spider"), yet keeps the narrative just this side of terrifying. The imagery adds layers of psychological complexity (the button eyes of the characters in the other world vs. the heroine's increasing ability to distinguish between what is real and what is not; elements of Coraline's dreams that inform her waking decisions). McKean's scratchy, angular drawings, reminiscent of Victorian etchings, add an ominous edge that helps ensure this book will be a real bedtime-buster. Ages 8-up.

Starred review from August 5, 2002
Bestselling horror/fantasy author Gaiman (a Brit now living in the States) masterfully brings to life his first book for children, a spine-tingling adventure pitting a curious girl against some unusual perils. Effortlessly shifting between a low, quiet tone (where he sometimes sounds like Alan Rickman) to a higher-pitched, almost chipper one, Gaiman becomes young Coraline, her amusingly distracted parents, the crazy man who lives upstairs (with a Russian accent) and all the other colorful characters in his tale. When young Coraline decides to go exploring, she travels through a mysterious door in her family's flat and winds up in a spooky parallel version of her life, replete with a set of strange "other" parents as well as alternative incarnations of her neighbors. Before she can get back to her real home, she must find the lost souls of some ghost children, outwit the wicked "other" mother and find her true family. Gaiman's swift pacing and lighthearted manner bring out the humorous notes in the story and keep things from getting too chilling for young listeners. Original, eerie, techno-sounding music by the Gothic Archies helps set the scene. July 2002 HarperCollins hardcover.
Ages 8-up.