The Weirdest, Most Original, and Frightening Book… That Children Will Love

 By Sarah Jane Abbott | Monday, October 13, 2014 -  Off the Shelf

                                        When young Coraline’s mother asks her where she has been all day, Coraline’s fanciful response is, “I was kidnapped by aliens…they came down from outer space with ray guns, but I fooled them by wearing a wig and laughing in a foreign accent, and I escaped.” To all this, her mother replies, “Yes, dear. Now, I think you could do with some more hair clips, don’t you?” Ah, parents – they never listen. Perhaps if Coraline’s parents had paid more attention, they might not have been kidnapped by the malevolent entity that lived in the “empty” apartment next door and Coraline might not have had to spend the last precious days of her summer vacation locked in a race-against-the-clock scavenger hunt to save all three of their souls. 

Neil Gaiman’s Coraline is a dark fairy tale full of light horror, intensely peculiar neighbors, and an adventurous young protagonist with far too much time on her hands. When Coraline and her parents move into a multi-family home midway through the summer, Coraline finds herself with nothing to do. She has read all of the books and is tired of her toys. She gets acquainted with her new neighbors: a grandmotherly but odd pair of retired actresses and the crazy old man upstairs who is training a troupe of mice to do tricks and play tiny instruments. But when she tires of them, she is back to square one: lonely and bored. That is, until she finds the door. -  More