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juushikaTitle: Coraline
Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Dave McKean
Published: New York: Harper Collins, 2002
Page Count: 162
Total Page Count: 17,240
Text Number: 48
Read For: My own enjoyment
Short review: Bored in her new flat and forgotten and annoyed by her parents, the young Coraline goes exploring and discovers a door that opens into another world, similar to her own but distinctly different. Back in her real world, her parents disppear—and so Coraline must be brave, grow up a little, a defeat the darkness of the world through the door. A fascinating, disturbing, somewhat gruesome, somewhat magical text, Coraline is a truly scary fairy tale in the vein of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I love this book, both the text and the illustrations, and recommend it highly, especially to those who like Gaiman's style.
I love children's literature in particular because children possess an unparalleled ability to accept what they see and read as real. Books like Coraline never doubt themselves or make excuses for the fantasy they contain, and the forthright honesty of their story are engaging and refreshing. Combined with Gaiman's touch—his ability to bring dark humor, complex alternate worlds, and simple creepiness into everything that he writes—and McKean's detailed yet otherworldy illustrations, Coraline creates a fantastical, dark, creepy world to life. The book is thrilling, scary, and engrossing all without feeling dumbed-down or apologetic.
The book includes a definite moral element, but don't let that deter you from reading it. The majority of the focus is on Coraline's growth, not what she should be (according to some independent moral code) but rather the fact that she is becoming whoever it is that she will be—in this case a particular, brave, dry-humored child. That is to say, there is a moral, but the moral encourages general growth rather than specific growth, and so the book is empowering rather than irritating, even for the adult reader.
Coraline is short, entertaining, creepy, weird, dark, empowering, and engrossing. I recommend it to all audience, and don't feel silly for picking up a children's book—this really is a wonderful read. It may not have the depth of a novel, but it's a book that I'm happy to have in my collection and come back to every now and then for a one-day read. I recommend that you check it out. It's one of Gaiman's best works.
Posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrator: Dave McKean
Published: New York: Harper Collins, 2002
Page Count: 162
Total Page Count: 17,240
Text Number: 48
Read For: My own enjoyment
Short review: Bored in her new flat and forgotten and annoyed by her parents, the young Coraline goes exploring and discovers a door that opens into another world, similar to her own but distinctly different. Back in her real world, her parents disppear—and so Coraline must be brave, grow up a little, a defeat the darkness of the world through the door. A fascinating, disturbing, somewhat gruesome, somewhat magical text, Coraline is a truly scary fairy tale in the vein of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I love this book, both the text and the illustrations, and recommend it highly, especially to those who like Gaiman's style.
I love children's literature in particular because children possess an unparalleled ability to accept what they see and read as real. Books like Coraline never doubt themselves or make excuses for the fantasy they contain, and the forthright honesty of their story are engaging and refreshing. Combined with Gaiman's touch—his ability to bring dark humor, complex alternate worlds, and simple creepiness into everything that he writes—and McKean's detailed yet otherworldy illustrations, Coraline creates a fantastical, dark, creepy world to life. The book is thrilling, scary, and engrossing all without feeling dumbed-down or apologetic.
The book includes a definite moral element, but don't let that deter you from reading it. The majority of the focus is on Coraline's growth, not what she should be (according to some independent moral code) but rather the fact that she is becoming whoever it is that she will be—in this case a particular, brave, dry-humored child. That is to say, there is a moral, but the moral encourages general growth rather than specific growth, and so the book is empowering rather than irritating, even for the adult reader.
Coraline is short, entertaining, creepy, weird, dark, empowering, and engrossing. I recommend it to all audience, and don't feel silly for picking up a children's book—this really is a wonderful read. It may not have the depth of a novel, but it's a book that I'm happy to have in my collection and come back to every now and then for a one-day read. I recommend that you check it out. It's one of Gaiman's best works.
Posted here on Amazon.com.
