Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	Coraline
	Author:	Gaiman, Neil
	Date Published:	2002
	Genre:	Thriller
	Grade Level:	5 - 12
	Booktalker:	Stephanie Bents

Booktalk:
There’s a locked door in Coraline’s living room, and she needs to know what is behind that door. When her mother unlocks the door for her, Coraline finds a brick wall. Her mother locks the door and hangs the key back up. Coraline wakes up in the middle of the night, and she sees the door is open a crack. Coraline goes over and peeks in. There is nothing there—just a wall built of bricks. Coraline lives in an old apartment building, surrounded by old people. The crazy man upstairs sees Coraline playing outside the next day, and he tells her, “the mice have a message for you. The message is, ‘Don’t go through the door.’ Does this mean anything to you?” “No”, Coraline replies. Coraline goes to visit her nutty neighbors downstairs, and they read her tealeaves and tell her she is in danger. The next day Coraline’s parents leave her home alone. Coraline goes and gets the key to the door in the living room, and she opens the door. This time it opens to a dark hallway. There is a cold, musty smell—it smells like something very old and very slow. Coraline steps into the hallway and walks down the corridor. She finds herself in an apartment almost exactly like her own. Coraline goes into the kitchen and finds a woman who looks almost exactly like her own mother, only her skin is as white as paper. Only her fingers are too long, and they never stop moving, and her dark red fingernails are carved and sharp. And when the woman turns around, Coraline sees that the woman has big black buttons where her eyes should be. “Who are you?” Coraline asks her. The woman tells her she is her mother, and the man with the button eyes is her father. The other mother feeds Coraline delicious food, and she gives Coraline wonderful toys. And they try to get Coraline to stay. Her other parents show her a china platter with a spool of black cotton, a long silver needle, and two large black buttons. Her other mother assures Coraline that it won’t hurt a bit, but Coraline tells her no thanks, and she refuses to stay. She goes back through the hallway and back to her home, expecting to see her mother and her father. Instead, her apartment is cold and empty. Coraline feeds herself, entertains herself, and waits for her parents to return home. When night falls, Coraline gives up and goes to bed. She is very worried about her parents, and she finally finds them. She sees them looking at her from inside of the hall mirror. They are staring at her, sad and alone. Her father opens his mouth to say something to her, but Coraline cannot hear him. So, her mother breathes on the mirror and writes the words, “help us.” Even though it is the last thing in the world she wants to do, and even though she knows she will have to once again face the other mother, Coraline knows that to save her parents, she must be very brave. She must unlock the door in the living room and rescue her parents from her other mother.