Coraline by Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell (Graphic Novel Book Review)

Coraline
Written by Neil Gaiman
Adapted & Illustrated by P. Craig Russell
Published by HarperCollins
on June 24, 2008
Genre: Middle Grade, Horror, Graphic Novels
Length: 192 pages
Ages: 8 - 12 years

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Synopsis:
When Coraline steps through a door in her family's new house, she finds another house, strangely similar to her own (only better). At first, things seem marvelous. The food is better than at home, and the toy box is filled with fluttering wind-up angels and dinosaur skulls that crawl and rattle their teeth.

But there's another mother there and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and all the tools she can find if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life.

The beloved tale has now become a visual feast. Acclaimed artist P. Craig Russel brings Neil Gaiman's enchanting nationally bestselling children's book Coraline to new life in this gorgeously illustrated graphic novel adaptation.

Our Thoughts:
In case you're not familiar with Coraline yet, it's a spooky children's story about a girl who moves into a big old house that contains a mysterious door that leads to nothing but a brick wall. But that night, she finds that the door actually leads somewhere. To a replica of her own side of the house to be exact, and in it, a mother and father just like hers, except for their button eyes. They want her to stay and Coraline must fight her way back to her own world to save herself and her parents.

Coraline was my very first Neil Gaiman novel. I purchased it on a whim through a mail service and fell in love with it. What a spooky and unique children's story it is! I'm also a big fan of Tim Burton movies so when I heard he was directing the movie, I was thrilled! It ended up being a lot more childish than I was expecting (as all newer Tim Burton movies are) but it's actually still one of my absolute favorite movies and I love the whimsical soundtrack enough to play it as background music sometimes!

I got pretty used to the idea of the claymation version of Coraline and had entirely forgotten my original movie-in-my-head version until I bought and read this graphic novel. It really brought me back to the realistic version I imagined all those years ago and because of that, it ended up being so very nostalgic! I loved it just as much this time around!

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