Coraline: A Transcendant Children's Tale

Neil Gaimain considers Coraline his weirdest novel, and for good reason. A story of a child who feels ignored by her family ends up falling into a separate world within her house where her creepy animated parents trick her with games and music so they can capture her and devour her soul. A courageous heroine tale for a children, a horrifying piece of fiction for parents.

What makes it work well as a children's story is basing it off of a young child, in this instance the girl resembles Neil's daughters, whom he wrote Coraline for. She lives a normal childhood life, only, boring. Her family has moved, the house is ancient, and all her parents do is work. She fantasizes about having fun but can't find it anywhere. That it until she learns of a magical world that has been right next to her all along. Great children's books get the children hooked on the premise and make them want to fantasize that such a thing is possible, and having this realm to another world be within grasp only encourages kids to use their imaginations of what's around them.

What's interesting is seeing how kids react to Coraline. The movie had a relatively popular response from children, and personally I know my little sister loves it. Yet to me I can only find it disturbing, with red flags of danger between how the parents looked and how secret everything was. But that's the beauty of it, the kids who enjoy Coraline only further prove that it's logical for Coraline to get so caught up in her fantasy world. Kids don't question things to the extent that cynical adults do, they just go out and do.