"Coraline" by Neil Gaiman

I do really enjoy Neil Gaiman's imagination.  So quirky.  Dark and murky here and there, but with hope and light filtering through always.  At least in the five books of his I've read so far.  I haven't tried his adult fiction yet.

Coraline absolutely enchanted me.  The epic quest its heroine goes on is just right for its audience, creepy without being nightmarish, desperate without being depressing, and so short you can get to the happy ending pretty quickly.  

Coraline steps through a magical door in her family's new apartment that leads to a mirror world where adults have black buttons instead of eyes, cats and dogs can talk, and little girls can save the day -- and their parents!  I'm so glad I picked it up off the shelf at an airport bookstore last week.  

Particularly Good Bits:

"There's nothing like hot chocolate and a hug for making the nightmares go away" (p. 53).

"When you're scared, but you still do it anyway, that's brave" (p. 57).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 because it would probably be too scary for younger kids.  Maybe not.  But I don't think my kids (or I, when I was a kid) would have been able to handle it younger than that.  There's quite a bit of creepy and evil and gross stuff going on.

This is my 13th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023 -- well, sorta.  I bought it at an airport and read it before I got home, so it never had a chance to sit on my TBR shelves, but it still counts.  And I'm trying to read books soon after I buy them this year, but they still count.

This is also my first book read for #MiddleGradeMarch in 2023.