Coraline

Coraline is an unusually cool, calm and collected child, not one to be easily ruffled by warning messages brought by mice or unpropitious readings of tea leaves. But even her cool is shattered when she steps through a once-blocked door and finds herself in a home that is both the same as hers and spookily different. The unforgettably scary image of her 'other' mother with black button eyes and a powerful hold that threatens to overwhelm Coraline lingers long after the story has reached its satisfying conclusion. Dawn French draws out the chilly undercurrents of this tightly told and emotionally draining story but its intimate and internal scale which works fine in print is less successful when read aloud.