hi
i'm Jodee a librarian at the north
community library for
talk about your shelf there is an older
book that i know has many avid fans
but for some reason i missed out and
never got around to reading it
now that we are all hunkering down at
home with more time for pleasure reading
i thought this would be the perfect
chance to go back and find out for
myself
the title i'll be featuring is the first
children's book
written by an award-winning author known
for his fantastical adult fiction but
even though it was actually written for
a younger audience
adult readers will find themselves
captivated by this story
which is a blend of many genres and it
is a shorter book
a novella so it doesn't require a huge
time commitment
however be forewarned it is an edge of
your seat read
so you may just find yourself unable to
put it down
my book talk will focus on the original
novella which due to some scary concepts
would be best for children 10 and up
it was later adapted as a graphic novel
which i also
highly recommend for young adult and
adult readers
it stays true to the original book but
the artwork adds intensity to the story
both of these versions and an audio book
read by the author himself
are available through the library's
download and stream
option on our website
www.splibraries.org
oh and even if you've already seen the
animated film
made from this book it is still well
worth reading
since the movie made some changes in
pacing scene and character
it will be up to you to decide if the
book is better than the movie
so have you figured out what book i'm
talking about
here it is
coraline by neil gaiman
coraline is an adventure
fantasy horror
suspense story about what happens to a
young girl
when she finds herself bored inside on a
rainy day
our title character coraline jones lives
in a large
old house that has been divided into
four flats
she lives in one with her parents who
are caring but otherwise preoccupied
so coraline has a lot of time on her own
she spends her time
exploring outside in the garden where
she's watched by a haughty black
cat she also visits her neighbors miss
spink and miss forcible
who are actors in their prime and who
live in the flat below with their many
dogs
and the flat above lives a crazy old man
with a big mustache
who is training a mouse circus and the
other flat next door is empty
one day when it was raining too much to
explore outside
coraline begins to explore the old house
she finds a door in the drawing room
but it is locked and her mother shows
her that it only opens onto a brick wall
that was made when the house was divided
into flats
strange things are beginning to happen
coraline is hearing noises at night and
having weird dreams with creepy songs
her neighbors are talking in a peculiar
way
reading her tea leaves and giving her a
message from the mice
one day when her parents aren't home
coraline is again
bored and decides to explore behind the
locked door
she gets the old key and opens the door
instead of the brick wall she finds a
dark hallway
what do you think she finds here's a
passage from the book
a woman stood in the kitchen with her
back to coraline
she looked a little like coraline's
mother only
only her skin was white as paper only
she was taller and thinner
only her fingers were too long and they
never stopped moving
and her dark red fingernails were curved
and sharp
coraline the woman said is that you
and then she turned around her eyes were
big black
buttons lunchtime coraline said the
woman
who are you ask coraline i'm your other
mother
said the woman go and tell your other
father that lunch is ready
coraline finds this parallel world
pretty exciting
the food is better her room is vibrant
and alive
but not all is as it seems so you will
have to read on
to find out what will happen next with
our adventurous clever and courageous
heroine
we've been waiting for you for a long
time
for me yes it wasn't the same here
without you
but we knew you'd arrive one day and
then we could be a proper family
would you like some more chicken i
didn't know i had an other mother
you
