Fascinating story line, witty writing make ‘Coraline’ memorable

    When the movie version of “Coraline” came out in 2009, I remember many people really liked it, but all I really knew about it was that the characters had creepy button eyes. Well the other day I saw the book on the shelf at Heginbotham Library, and it seemed like as good a time as any to finally see what it was all about. As a result, I think I’m a budding Neil Gaiman fan.
    Gaiman has a website specifically for younger readers, www.mousecircus.com. In a delightful Q&A section he is asked, “Are you ever worried that you will introduce a world to children that is too horrific for them to handle?” That question, his answer “no,” and reading “Coraline” have piqued my interest, and reading more of his work has been added to my immediate to-do list.
    In a word, “Coraline” is chilling. It’s a children’s novella, but it’s dark, and I can imagine some imaginations running wild after reading it.
    The title character is a young girl, living with her mom and dad in a new flat. A cast of oddballs make up the other tenants of the old house. A crazy old man upstairs claims to be training a mouse circus, and two women downstairs can’t stop talking about their days as actresses when they were young. Getting to know the new people is only half of her mission though, and Coraline wanders around the grounds, exploring a garden, an old tennis court and a boarded up well.
    Inside the house there are things to explore, too. Prompted by her father to count the windows and doors (so that she’ll leave him alone while he works), Coraline finds a door that leads directly to a brick wall. At least sometimes it does. Sometimes Coraline can enter a different world through that doorway.
    In the other world is a house that looks mostly like her own, complete with an other mom and other dad that look mostly like her own — except for their black button eyes. Everything in that world seems more interesting than in her ordinary world, where the neighbors can’t remember her name, her parents are always busy working and the food isn’t to her liking. Of course, it takes the threat of losing those things for Coraline to appreciate all that she has in the boring, old real world.
    Whether in the real world or the other world, Coraline is a curious, determined and smart little girl, the kind you want to root for. It’s easy to imagine little girls just like her reading this book, facing their own frustrations, annoyances and challenges.

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