My best friend just had a baby and the mother in me has come alive. I have been reading children’s books so that I can tell him stories. Besides rereading my childhood books, I also pick up new ones at the bookstore. Some of them are so short and engaging that I read them sitting on the store steps or that one extremely comfy wicker chair. I consider the other slightly longer ones as investments. Baby K will appreciate them. One of the many children’s books I read recently was ‘Coraline’ by Neil Gaiman. It’s a horror book. I won’t be reading this one out loud to Baby K anytime soon but it was such a fun read. I loved it. I had heard good things about it for so long. It definitely lived up to the hype. The illustrations by Chris Riddell for the 20th anniversary edition make the story come alive. A girl named Coraline discovers a locked door that leads to another world, where there is the other-father and the other-mother. They look like her parents, except with black button eyes, but they treat her the way Coraline has always wished her parents did. The other-mother, unlike her real mother, cooks actual meals. The other-father is willing to play with her. Her real father shoos her away from his study. Coraline is promised everything she could ever want, if she returns to stay in this world.

But her real parents go missing and Coraline suspects the other-mother is behind it. She goes to live in the other world, to find and rescue her parents. As she investigates, she discovers dark secrets. She realizes that she could also be trapped in this world with no way out. Coraline is a determined young girl and she won’t let fears stop her from finding her way back home.

Gaiman has created a fascinating world. There is a cat that talks and ghosts that seem like real people. The story chills and enthralls. But it’s far more than just a horror story. It’s a story about the importance of family and not giving up, even when the odds are stacked against you. The message Gaiman wanted to give was perhaps that courage doesn’t mean being fearless. It’s doing the right thing despite being shit scared. Coraline is a bold and brave girl. She has her whims and fancies but is driven by the need to do what’s right. She creeps into your heart from the first page, with her cute and adult-like behavior, and finds a permanent place there. Three and half stars https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17061.Coraline Fiction Coraline Neil Gaiman Illustrated by Chris Riddell Published: 2002 Publisher: Bloomsbury Pages 180, Paperback