About the Author

Neil Gaiman is the New York Times bestselling and multi-award winning author and creator of many beloved books, graphic novels, short stories, film, television and theatre for all ages. He is the recipient of the Newbery and Carnegie Medals, and many Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Will Eisner Awards. Neil has adapted many of his works to television series, including Good Omens (co-written with Terry Pratchett) and The Sandman. He is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR and Professor in the Arts at Bard College. For a lot more about his work, please visit: https: //www.neilgaiman.com/

Dave McKean is best known for his work on Neil Gaiman's Sandman series of graphic novels and for his CD covers for musicians from Tori Amos to Alice Cooper. He also illustrated Neil Gaiman's picture books The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, The Wolves in the Walls, and Crazy Hair. He is a cult figure in the comic book world, and is also a photographer.

Reviews

"Gaiman's tale is inventive, scary, thrilling and finally affirmative. Readers young and old will find something to startle them." -- Washington Post Book World"A modern ghost story with all the creepy trimmings...Well done." -- New York Times Book Review"Coraline is by turns creepy and funny, bittersweet and playful...can be read quickly and enjoyed deeply." -- San Francisco Chronicle Book Review"A magnificently creepy story. Coraline is spot on." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"Gaiman's pacing is superb, and he steers the tension of the tale with a deft and practiced narrative touch." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, rise to your feet and applaud: Coraline is the real thing." -- Philip Pullman, The Guardian"The most splendidly original, weird, and frightening book I have read, and yet full of things children will love." -- Diana Wynne Jones"It has the delicate horror of the finest fairy tales, and it is a masterpiece." -- Terry Pratchett"An electrifyingly creepy tale likely to haunt young readers for many moons." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)" Walk through the door and you'll believe in love, magic, and the power of good over evil." -- USA Today"So wonderfully whimsical that readers of all ages will hungrily devour itCoraline is destined to become a classic. -- Globe and Mail (Toronto)"Chilly, finely-wrought prose, a truly weird setting and a fable that taps into our most uncomfortable fears." -- Times Educational Supplement"A deliciously scary book that we loved reading together as a family." -- Orson Scott Card"Beautifully spooky. Gaiman actually seems to understand the way children think. " -- Christian Science Monitor"A frighteningly realistic fantasy. Lean crisp prose adds to the suspense and propels the story, and the eerie black-and-white illustrations by Dave McKean heighten the nightmarish quality of the tale." -- Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)"Kids will hang on every word. Coraline is a character with whom they will surely identify, and they will love being frightened out of their shoes. This is just right for all those requests for a scary book." -- School Library Journal (starred review)

Gr 6-8-When Coraline and her parents move into a new house, she notices a mysterious, closed-off door. It originally went to another part of the house, which her family does not own. Some rather eccentric neighbors call her Caroline and seem not to understand her very well, yet they have information for her that will later prove vital. Bored, she investigates the door, which takes her into an alternate reality. There she meets her "other" mother and father. They are very nice to her, which pleases Coraline but also makes her a little suspicious. Her neighbors are in this other world, and they are the same, yet somehow different. When Coraline gets nervous and returns home, her parents are gone. With the help of a talking cat, she figures out that they are being held prisoner by her other parents, as are the souls of some long-lost children. Coraline's plan to rescue them involves, among other things, making a risky bargain with her other mother whose true nature is beginning to show. The rest of the story is a suspense-filled roller coaster, and the horror is all the more frightening for being slightly understated. A droll humor is present in some of the scenes, and the writing is simple yet laden with foreboding. The story is odd, strange, even slightly bizarre, but kids will hang on every word. Coraline is a character with whom they will surely identify, and they will love being frightened out of their shoes. This is just right for all those requests for a scary book.-Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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 missingDthey'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. (July) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

"Gaiman's tale is inventive, scary, thrilling and finally affirmative. Readers young and old will find something to startle them." -- Washington Post Book World"A modern ghost story with all the creepy trimmings...Well done." -- New York Times Book Review"Coraline is by turns creepy and funny, bittersweet and playful...can be read quickly and enjoyed deeply." -- San Francisco Chronicle Book Review"A magnificently creepy story. Coraline is spot on." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"Gaiman's pacing is superb, and he steers the tension of the tale with a deft and practiced narrative touch." -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, rise to your feet and applaud: Coraline is the real thing." -- Philip Pullman, The Guardian"The most splendidly original, weird, and frightening book I have read, and yet full of things children will love." -- Diana Wynne Jones"It has the delicate horror of the finest fairy tales, and it is a masterpiece." -- Terry Pratchett"An electrifyingly creepy tale likely to haunt young readers for many moons." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)" Walk through the door and you'll believe in love, magic, and the power of good over evil." -- USA Today"So wonderfully whimsical that readers of all ages will hungrily devour itCoraline is destined to become a classic. -- Globe and Mail (Toronto)"Chilly, finely-wrought prose, a truly weird setting and a fable that taps into our most uncomfortable fears." -- Times Educational Supplement"A deliciously scary book that we loved reading together as a family." -- Orson Scott Card"Beautifully spooky. Gaiman actually seems to understand the way children think. " -- Christian Science Monitor"A frighteningly realistic fantasy. Lean crisp prose adds to the suspense and propels the story, and the eerie black-and-white illustrations by Dave McKean heighten the nightmarish quality of the tale." -- Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)"Kids will hang on every word. Coraline is a character with whom they will surely identify, and they will love being frightened out of their shoes. This is just right for all those requests for a scary book." -- School Library Journal (starred review)