Coraline by Neil Gaiman *Contains Spoilers, especially about the movie*

Toss aside your assumptions about this book, especially if you have seen the movie. There is no Whybie, no doll, hell, it is not even set in America. The cat though, is still there, as are the other mother and ghost children. The neighbors are the same as well.

In the movie, Coraline's parents are inattentive, mean, lousy parents. In the book, Coraline is a spoiled, self important, bratty child. The parents are good, attentive, caring, and loving. Interesting how Hollywood can screw a book up. It was very difficult for my daughter to sit quietly through this one as she expected it to be just like the film.

The author wrote this or his daughter, but did not finish it right away. In fact, it took him an amazing amount of time. You can tell it was a feat of love. It is a good book. It is not my typical style, but I appreciated it for what it was and my girls did enjoy it. 

New Adventures Await

The beauty of books is their ability to not only take you to different places, but also to different worlds. The ability to become another person, even a different species, if only in your mind is greatly underrated. There is more than that though...

Reading to your children helps them to develop greater language and problem solving skills. It helps them to develop their greater abilities of imagination and story telling. It helps them to build their own love and desire for the written word. I read to my daughters every night. I had to wait until I got them adjusted to their bedroom first, but it was worth the wait.

The first book I read to them after their big move was Coraline. My older daughter was greatly annoyed at me for this, as she was wanting a bigger girl book. Now I am reading the Guardians Of Ga'Hoole series. I find that even after they have fallen asleep, I cannot put the books down and have to cycle back for the place they fell asleep.

There are few things more amazing to me than a well written book. Because I suffer from mental illness that make life difficult, books are the thing I look forward to most. I find few things on television worth watching, and I do not deal with people very well, so books are the only escape I really have. We owe so much to the great authors. These men and women weave worlds for us...