What Parents Should Know
The story is pretty creepy -- not for sensitive children. But it's a good choice for kids who want horror and whose parents would prefer it be well-written and not too gruesome.

Common Sense Media Review
Author Gaiman is well known in the world of adult literature, but this is his first book for children. It's a strange, surrealistic tale, fun for kids who like their stories creepy. The black and white illustrations by Dave McKean are correspondingly sinister. But it lacks the emotional heart that marks the best children's books.

Not everything makes sense here, and Coraline is not a character to bring out readers' empathy. But the atmosphere is mildly scary, and the story rolls along fairly unpredictably. It's not an awe-inspiring debut in the children's book world, but it's enjoyable enough.

From the Book:
Expecting it to be a toffee or a butterscotch ball, Coraline looked down. The bag was half filled with large shiny blackbeetles, crawling over each other in their efforts to get out of the bag.

"No," said Coraline. "I don't want one."

"Suit yourself," said her other mother. She carefully picked out a particularly large and black beetle, picked off its legs (which she dropped, neatly, into a big glass ashtray on the small table beside the sofa), and popped the beetle into her mouth. She crunched it happily.

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