The
Book - Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Coraline lives with her preoccupied
parents in part of a huge old house--a house so huge
that other people live in it, too... round, old
former actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible and
their aging Highland terriers ("We trod the boards,
luvvy") and the mustachioed old man under the roof
("'The reason you cannot see the mouse circus,' said
the man upstairs, 'is that the mice are not yet
ready and rehearsed.'") Coraline contents herself
for weeks with exploring the vast garden and
grounds. But with a little rain she becomes
bored--so bored that she begins to count everything
blue (153), the windows (21), and the doors (14).
And it is the 14th door that--sometimes blocked with
a wall of bricks--opens up for Coraline into an
entirely alternate universe. Now, if you're thinking
fondly of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, you're
on the wrong track. Neil Gaiman's Coraline is
far darker, far stranger, playing on our deepest
fears. And, like Roald Dahl's work, it is delicious.
What's on the other
side of the door? A distorted-mirror world,
containing presumably everything Coraline has ever
dreamed of... people who pronounce her name
correctly (not "Caroline"), delicious meals (not
like her father's overblown "recipes"), an unusually
pink and green bedroom (not like her dull one), and
plenty of horrible (very un-boring) marvels, like a
man made out of live rats. The creepiest part,
however, is her mirrored parents, her "other mother"
and her "other father"--people who look just like
her own parents, but with big, shiny, black button
eyes, paper-white skin... and a keen desire to keep
her on their side of the door. To make creepy
creepier, Coraline has been illustrated
masterfully in scritchy, terrifying ink drawings by
British mixed-media artist and Sandman cover
illustrator Dave McKean. This delightful, funny,
haunting, scary as heck, fairy-tale novel is about
as fine as they come. Highly recommended. (Ages 11
and older)
Coraline
Reading Guide (by Neil Gaiman)
Gr.4-8
Harper Children's
Class
discussion ideas
A
Foreshadowing lesson using Coraline
Summary, book
talk and 15 discussion questions
Coraline games and e-cards
http://www.mousecircus.com/coraline/flash/coraline.html
Reader’s Theater from Children’s Sequoyah Sampler
http://www.oklibs.org/sequoyah/0405/2005_Ch_sampler.pdf
see
pg 27
Scheme of Work and Guided reading resources
Infer and deduce meaning using evidence in the text
Teaching resource sheets for Coraline (PDF, 163 KB)
|
You can buy the book from
Amazon, or
request it free
if you are a member of Pivotal Gold Book
Club.
Not
a member?
Join here |