Coraline

“Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.”

Neil Gaiman‘s first sentence offers a glimpse of the fascinating story to follow. It has a slightly creepy vibe–you know there’s a strange door that was hidden somehow, because it needed discovering. And Coraline (not Caroline as her eccentric neighbours call her) following her curious and explorative nature is the one to find it.

Coraline is brave, because bravery is all about doing something even if you feel fearful. Going through the door opens an eerie new world to Coraline, a world with an other mother and an other father. Coraline is right to be suspicious of the interesting things there; when she returns to her own world, her real parents are missing. She must go back through the door and figure out how to save them and the other lost children she finds.

Themes of good and evil, independence and quiet heroism pervade this unique book.