Part modern-day fairytale, part Alice in Wonderland and part spine-chilling adventure, Coraline explodes with imaginative imagery. Never afraid to push the boundaries of the absurd to the brink, Coraline is a gift for teachers looking to explore creative writing with their children.
The story begins with Coraline having just moved into a somewhat mysterious old house. It’s the school holidays and as an only child of busy parents, Coraline feels bored and neglected. She explores the house and garden, meeting the eccentric tenants who share the house with her family along the way. Then, one afternoon, Coraline discovers the mysterious, bricked-up door in the drawing room. It inexplicably leading to a parallel house, with an ‘other mother and father’. Now the wild adventure really begins.
Neil Gaiman allows his readers to use their imaginations in building their own versions of his characters by keeping physical descriptions mostly minimal. This is an interesting area to explore with a class.
Coraline also contains many interesting big themes to talk about. It covers being brave even when you’re afraid, the deception of appearances, and the importance of being true to yourself. Packed with creepy excitement from the off, it carries its readers on a wave of suspense to the very last page.
Coraline book topic – introducing the story
- Coraline is the main character in this book. Explain that the principal character in a literary work is known as the protagonist. Encourage the use of this term when talking about Coraline, to extend children’s use of literary vocabulary.
- Words used to describe this book include: creepy, sinister, spellbinding, captivating and disturbing. Ask children to find the meaning of each of these words using an online thesaurus.
- Houses, cottages, castles, etc. are often used in stories to lend a particular atmosphere. In Coraline, the old, mysterious house provides a sense of spookiness. Ask children to think about a very different type of home, such as a cosy cottage. This time the atmosphere they want to create is warm and welcoming – how could they describe this? As a class, talk about words and phrases that could be used here. Pupils can go on to write a short description of a cosy home. A sample first sentence could be: ‘Mrs Winterby had lived in our road all my life. Her little cottage was…’
- There are similarities between the story of Coraline and the fairytale of Hansel and Gretel. Do pupils know this story? Can they see any similarities?
Karen Hart is an independent drama teacher, author and freelance writer.
