Bound To Stay Bound

Bulletin for the Center... - 11/01/2002 Coraline and her parents have just moved into a big old house that has been divided into several apartments, and Coraline has been meeting a cast of oddball but friendly neighbors. One strange architectural feature of her new home is a door that opens only to reveal a brick wall. Coraline finds this door intriguing, especially the day she opens it and, instead of the wall, finds a passageway. On the other end she finds a home identical to her own, complete with two people who call themselves her “other parents”; the only physical difference between these people and her real parents is their eyes: “[Their] eyes were buttons, big and black and shiny.” Thus begins a nightmare that doesn’t stop until Coraline escapes and, in a gruesome conclusion, throws her “other mother’s” evil disembodied hand into the pit of a dark well. The nearly candy-coated opening, in which Coraline blithely explores her new neighborhood, provides a perfect complement to the creepy, bug-and-rat infested world of Coraline’s horrifying experience. Gaiman’s pacing is superb, and he steers the tension of the tale with a deft and practiced narrative touch. McKean’s black-and-white illustrations depict first sunny and then eerie scenes in an old-fashioned style with spidery and elongated lines. Although this is not for the faint of heart, readers who have long coveted a horror story that would play to their most vivid fears will find the unforgettable “other mother” to be the perfect terrifying villain. (A 2002 Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book) - Copyright 2002 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 08/01/2002 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. - Copyright 2002 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 08/01/2002 Coraline has recently moved with her preoccupied parents into a flat in an old house. The neighbors above and below are odd but friendly: Mr. Bobo trains mice; elderly Misses Spink and Forcible serve her tea and tell her fortune. No one lives in the flat next door. But Coraline knows better, and one evening she discovers what’s there: a tantalizing alternate world, filled with toys and food (unlike any of the boring stuff she has at home) and weird-- though wonderfully attentive--parents, who happen to have black button eyes sewn on with dark thread. Although her “other parents” beg her to stay, she decides to leave, but by doing so Coraline sets in motion a host of nightmarish events that she must remedy alone. Gaiman, well known for his compelling adult horror novels (see “The Booklist Interview,” opposite), seems less sure of himself with a younger age group. His “nowhere wonderland” setting (think Alice on acid) is magical, deliciously eerie, and well captured in the text and in McKean’s loose, angular sketches. But the goings-on are murky enough to puzzle some kids and certainly creepy enough to cause a few nightmares (ignore the publisher’s suggestion that this is suitable for eight-year-olds). What’s more, Coraline is no naive Alice. She’s a bundle of odd contradictions that never seem to gel--confident, outspoken, self-sufficient one moment; a whiny child the next. Gaiman’s construct offers a chilling and empowering view of children, to be sure, but young readers are likely to miss such subtleties as the clever allusions to classic horror movies and the references to the original dark tales by the Brothers Grimm. Gaiman has written an often-compelling horror novel, but, as with so many adult authors who attempt to reach young readers, his grasp of his audience is less sure than his command of his material. - Copyright 2002 Booklist.