Coraline

BY: COLEMAN
Coraline, Written by Neil Gaiman, Published by HarperCollins Publishing.

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 [p. vii at the beginning of this novel]

     This novel shows that dragons can indeed be beaten.  I bought it after I had seen the commercial advertising the movie, and fell in love with it!  This story is about a young girl in modern England named Coraline, who finds a hallway behind a locked door in her family's new flat (an apartment in England).  This hallway looks just like the one in her flat, and it leads to the rest of a flat that looks just like her own.  When she finds herself in a kitchen that is just like hers, she finds a woman that looks just like her mother.  Later she meets a father just like hers, and neighbors just like hers.  There is just one thing different about these "people"--they have black buttons for eyes.  They take upon themselves the names of, "The Other Mother," "The Other Father," "The Other Man Upstairs," and "The Other Miss Spink," and "The Other Miss Forcible."

     Another thing about this almost "perfect" world is this--everything is supposed to be perfect.  In her miserable "real" life, with her working parents not listening to her, and a boring apartment building, she goes to this world two times, but begins to get frightened at the Other Mother.  When she returns from the Other Mother's world she finds that her parents have gone missing.  Coraline must brave all odds to rescue her parents.

     I found the story's moral worthwhile and inspiring.  It showed us how goodness will always overpower evil, showing us that "dragons can be beaten." I am glad Mr. Gaiman wrote this amazing story, and I find myself wishing he would write a sequel to Coraline.
The  illustrations were beautiful--and frightening.  I kind of want to read it again.

The Movie:

I like clay-animation, I am tired of a matter that has no point whatsoever.

And by this I mean: Miss Forcible was made "busty."  The way they sometimes shape women in clay animation is inappropriate and sensual.  The female characters would look fine without all this--it is almost like the animators are disgracing the body.  We watched the movie on ClearPlay, and we are glad that we did.

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     I think that Neil Gaiman wished to point out that goodness will overcome all evil.  He accomplished this with me and I'm sure with you too if you choose to read it, and I am literally begging you to!