27194 coraline

This is about a very "different" girl named Coraline Jones. She
and her parents move into an old Queen Anne style house that
has been subdivided into four flats. The other tenants include
Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, two elderly women retired from
the stage, and Mr. Bobo, who is training a mouse circus. The
flat beside Coraline's remains empty.
During a rainy day she discovers a locked door in the drawing
room, which has been bricked up. As she goes to visit her
neighbors, Mr. Bobo relates to her a message from the mice:
Don't go through the door. At tea with Miss Spink and Miss
Forcible, Miss Spink spies danger in Coraline’s future after
reading her tea leaves, and gives her a stone with a hole in it for
protection.
Despite these warnings, Coraline decides to unlock the door
when she is home by herself and finds the brick wall behind the
door gone. In its place is a long passageway, which leads to a
flat identical to her own, inhabited by her Other Mother and
Other Father, who are replicas of her real parents. They have
button eyes and exaggerated features. In this “Other World”,
Coraline finds everything to be better than her reality: her
Other Parents are attentive, her toy box is filled with animate
toys that can move and fly, and the Other Miss Spink and Miss
Forcible forever perform a cabaret show in their flat. She even
finds the feral Black Cat that wandered around the house in the
real world can talk, however she learns he is not of the Other
World; he only travels from one world to another and he has
come to warn Coraline of the imminent danger, but Coraline
pays him no heed.
The Other Mother offers Coraline a chance to stay in the Other
World forever, if Coraline will allow buttons to be sewn into
her eyes. Coraline is horrified and escapes back through the

door to go home, much to the disappointment of the Other
Mother. Upon her return to her apartment, Coraline finds her
real parents are missing. They do not return the next day, and
the black cat wakes her and takes her to a mirror in her hallway,
through which she can see her trapped parents. They signal to
her by writing "Help Us" on the glass, from which Coraline
deduces the Other Mother has kidnapped them. Though
frightened of returning, Coraline goes back to the Other World
to confront the Other Mother and rescue her parents. In the
garden, Coraline is prompted by the Cat to challenge the Other
Mother, as “her kind of thing loves games and challenges”. The
Other Mother tries to convince Coraline to stay, but Coraline
refuses, and is locked behind a mirror as punishment.

Coraline Jones
A young explorer. She is intelligent, curious,
resourceful, and courageous. Coraline is
often irritated by rain, crazy grown-ups (as
they all seem to be), and not being taken
seriously because of her young age and quiet
demeanor, though perhaps her biggest
annoyance is that everyone mistakes her
name for Caroline (everyone in the real
world at least, except the mice and her
parents). She's short, skinny and has black
hair.

Mrs. Jones – Coraline's mother. She works
at her house on the computer. She is very
busy most of the time, and sometimes a little

inattentive, but she loves and cares about
Coraline. She is pretty, nice, and helpful,
though Coraline considers her to be rather
boring. Coraline also gets annoyed with her
real mother because she doesn't seem to
want to let Coraline "fit in".


Mr. Jones – Coraline's father. He works at
his house on the computer. He cares about
Coraline very much and is kind,
gentlemanly, brave, and helpful. But, like
her mother, Coraline finds him rather boring.
He also makes interesting food creations that
Coraline strongly dislikes. This makes
Coraline very upset, which is also why she
likes the Other World at first.

Coraline is a horror/fantasy novella by
Neil Gaiman. First Neil wrote the book,
then it was turned into a graphic novel and
later an animated film.
You can watch the trailer here:
/>v=Js7wxoqeVK0

In the darkness, she meets three ghost children, each from a
different era, who had let the beldam (the Other Mother) sew
buttons in their eyes. They tell her how she eventually grew
bored of them, ate their bodies, and cast their spirits aside. The
ghost children implore Coraline to avoid their fate, and to help

find their souls so that they can leave the Other World and pass
on.
After the Other Mother releases Coraline from the mirror,
Coraline proposes a game in which she must find the ghost
children’s souls and her parents, which lay hidden throughout
the Other World. If Coraline wins, she, her parents and the
ghost children may go free. If not, Coraline will let the Other
Mother sew the buttons into her eyes.
Coraline goes through the Other World, and overcomes all the
Other Mother’s obstacles, using her wits and Miss Spink’s
stone to locate the ghost children’s souls. At the close of the
game, the ghost children warn her even if Coraline wins, the
Other Mother will not let them go. Having deduced her parents
are imprisoned in the snow globe on the mantle, Coraline tricks
the Other Mother by saying her parents are behind the door in
the drawing room. As the Other Mother opens the door,
Coraline throws the cat at the Other Mother, grabs the snow
globe, and escapes to the real world with the key. In doing so,
she forces the door shut on the Other Mother's hand, severing
it. Back in her home, Coraline finds her parents safe and with
no memory of the events.
That night, Coraline has a dream in which she meets the three
children before they move on to the afterlife. They warn her,
her task is still not done: the other mother's severed hand is in
Coraline's world, attempting to steal the key which opens the
door that connects the two worlds. Coraline goes to an old well
in the woods by her house, luring the Other Mother’s hand
there with the key, and casts both down the bottomless well.
Coraline returns home, victorious, and prepares to go about the
ordinary life she has come to accept and love.

If you decide to watch the film here are some points for discussion:
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What things are the basic things for kids to have a good life? What should parents do or make sure is
available?
Make a list of the ten most essential things!
What needs do Coraline’s parents meet and which don’t they meet?
What does Coraline miss in her life in the Pink Palace?
“The other home” – how do the parents behave, how are they, and what do they do?
Make a comparison of the two homes and find out why Coraline likes to visit in the other home and maybe
even stay there.
Is everything alright in “the other home”? What signs do you see that indicate everything isn’t okay?


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You:

Your dad:

Talk about witches from other books or films. How many of them started out nice and friendly and later
turned into vicious creature? Could the witches also be seen as mums or stepmoms? Explain.
What do witches look like? Can they be beautiful? Why do they behave the way they do? What can witches
normally do? What does the witch in Coraline look like in her different stages? What does she want and
what is her final goal? What does she want?

Talk about doors – why do you often find secrets behind a closed door? Why is it often a door that leads to
another world? What does a door represent? What does an open door mean? What does a closed door mean?
What does it take to open a closed door? Can you always open a door? Have you ever stood in front of a
door you really would like to open? What was the secret of the door? What kind of world was behind the
door?

Your mom: