SYPNOSIS

The book Coraline is set in England, but takes place in a few different places. The first place is The Pink Palace. The
Pink Palace is where Coraline and her family live. It is a pink mansion that is split up into three different apartments. The
story revolves around the very strange experiences Coraline has when she and her parents move into an
apartment in an old house. Coraline must save herself and her parents from the evil forces that threaten them.

CHAPTERS

Chapter 1

 Coraline and her family moved in the Pink Palace

 Other people live in the house, too. First, there are two elderly roommates, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible who
used to be actresses.
 The other neighbor is a weird old man who lives upstairs. He has a mouse circus, supposedly, although Coraline
thinks he just made it up
 In her explorations, Coraline also spots a black cat, who seems to be watching her.
 Coraline has discovered "the door" in her new house.
 "We are small but we are many/ We are many we are small /We were here before you rose/ We will be here when
you fall"

Chapter 2

 "Don't go through the door"

 She goes out to visit Miss Spink and Miss Forcible.
 They offered to tell Coraline's future by reading her tea leaves.

Chapter 3

 Coraline and her mom go shopping for back-to-school clothes and supplies the next day while her dad heads off
to spend the day in London on business.
 When they get home, Coraline asks what's in the empty apartment next door, but her mom doesn't know.
 Used the big black key to unlock the door.
 Caroline met her other family

Chapter 4

 Caroline visited the other family for the second time.

 She decided to meet the other Ms. Spink and Ms. Forcible
 Coraline has to have black button eyes put in.
 Coraline decides it's time to head back to her real home.

Chapter 5

 Caroline discovered that her parents are gone.

 Suddenly, the black cat wakes her up and Coraline follows it to a hallway mirror.
 Turns out her parents are inside the mirror
 Coraline goes to call the police
 Caroline tried to find a way how to save her parents with the help of the black cat
 She shared her story to the black cat
 Coraline gets to the other world and her other parents welcome her back "home."
 Chapter 6

 When Coraline wakes up, she's confused and disoriented. Then she remembers what happened and knows she's in
the other world.
 Coraline goes back inside and looks for her parents in the mirror again, but they aren't there.
 Coraline tells the other mother that she wants her real parents back.
 The other mother gets fed up: she opens up the mirror and puts Coraline inside.

Chapter 7

 Coraline tries to find a way out from inside the mirror

 Coraline bumps into some people in the dark: there are three other children in the mirror room with her
 Look through the stone

Chapter 8

 The other mother comes into the mirror room, looking much better.
 Coraline challenges the other mother, suggesting that they play a game.
 Coraline wanders back to the hall mirror, holding the stone with the hole in it. Interesting: the stone looks green in
the mirror, and there's a green trail coming out of Coraline's room..
 She found a red marble which turned out to be the soul of the ghost boy
 Coraline feels newly determined: she changes back into her pajamas and puts the marble in her pocket.
 She goes outside and heads over to Miss Spink and Miss Forcible's place

Chapter 9

 Outside, the world is starting to lose its form: everything is all gray and swirling.
 The other mother is waiting for Coraline, looking furious.
 She tried to look for a way out.

Chapter 10

 Coraline goes up to where the crazy old man lives.

 Coraline is sure she wants to go home
 She chases after the rat that is holding a marble
 Claustrophobia
 Caroline is determined to save her parents, the souls of the ghost children and the cat

Chapter 11

 Caroline goes back to the apartment

 She confronted the other mother
 Coraline successfully rescued the souls of the three children and her parents

Chapter 12

 Coraline's mother wakes her up and tells her it's almost time for dinner.
 Her parents doesn’t remember anything
 She ties some string around the black key to make a necklace and she kept the three marbles under her pillow.
 Coraline had a dream about the three children.
 When she woke up, she saw the hand of the other mother moving beside.
Chapter 13

 Coraline goes back to bed and makes a plan.

 She discovers that the three marbles have shattered
 Coraline heads next door to have tea with Miss Spink and Miss Forcible
 She spots the other mother's hand on the windowsill
 The next day Coraline tells her mom that she's going to have a picnic
 She loudly announces that she's going to go play by the old tennis courts.
 Her plan to shut the other mother for good was a success.
 On her way, she runs into Mr. Bobo and tells him her name is Coraline.
 Before going home, Coraline goes to give the good-luck stone back to Miss Spink and Miss Forcible.
 Coraline goes to bed and gets ready for a new school year

CHARACTERS

 Coraline Jones – protagonist, a little girl with big courage but to those around her she seems a little bland and
unmemorable
 The other mother (The Beldam) - also known as the beldam (which means witch), is the book's super creepy
villain
 Mr. Jones - Coraline's dad, tries his best to entertain his daughter and to cook her dinner, but because he
works from home, he doesn't have a lot of of time to play with her
 Mrs. Jones - Coraline's mom, a distracted and busy woman who often ignores her daughter
 Miss Spink and Miss Forcible - former actresses who love to talk about their days in the theatre
 The Ghost Children - children trapped by the other mother for a very long time, ghost boy, ghost girl and
girl with wings (fairy)
 The black Cat - teamed up with Coraline and helped her escape from the other world
 The Other Father - more pathetic than scary, under the other mother's control
 The Other Miss Spink and Miss Forcible – young version of themselves
 Mr. Bobo (The man Upstairs) - a weirdo, he's trying to start a mouse circus
 Other Mr. Bobo – scary, runs a successful – and completely disturbing – rat circus instead of a mouse circus
 The Police officer – the person Coraline called to ask for help but thinks she is crazy

SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS

 Buttons – masks
 Key - freedom and power
 Mirrors - reflect the ugly truth behind it
 Food - parent’s indifference towards Coraline, bait
 Felines - Coraline’s practical feminine wisdom
SYPNOSIS

The book Coraline is set in England, but takes place in a few different places. The first place is The Pink Palace. The
Pink Palace is where Coraline and her family live. It is a pink mansion that is split up into three different apartments.

This short novel tells the amazing, and creepy, tale of what happens when a girl named Coraline and her parents move
into an apartment on the second floor of a very old house. Two elderly retired actresses live on the ground floor and an
old, and quite strange, man who says he is training a mouse circus, lives in the flat above Coraline's family.

Coraline's parents are frequently distracted and don't pay a lot of attention to her, the neighbors keep pronouncing her
name incorrectly, and Coraline is bored. In the course of exploring the house, Coraline discovers a door that opens onto a
brick wall. Her mother explains that when the house was divided into apartments, the doorway was bricked up between
their apartment and "the empty flat on the other side of the house, the one that's still for sale."

Strange sounds, shadowy creatures in the night, cryptic warnings from her neighbors, a scary reading of tea leaves and the
gift of a stone with a hole in it because it's "good for bad things, sometimes," are all rather unsettling. However, it's when
Coraline opens the door to the brick wall, finds the wall gone, and walks into the supposedly empty apartment that things
get really strange and frightening.

The apartment is furnished. Living in it is a woman who sounds much like Carline's mother and introduces herself as
Coraline's "other mother" and Coraline's "other father." Both have button eyes, "big and black and shiny." While initially
enjoying the good food and attention, Coraline finds more and more to worry her. Her other mother insists they want her
to stay forever, her real parents disappear, and Coraline quickly realizes that it will be up to her to save herself and her real
parents.

The story of how she copes with her "other mother" and the strange versions of her real neighbors, how she helps and gets
helped by three young ghosts and a talking cat, and how she frees herself and rescues her real parents by being brave and
resourceful is dramatic and exciting. While the pen and ink illustrations by Dave McKean are appropriately creepy, they
are not really necessary. Neil Gaiman does a superb job of painting pictures with words, making it easy for readers to
visualize each scene.

CHAPTERS

Chapter 1

 In the first sentence, we learn that Coraline has discovered "the door" in her new house. That's all we hear about
that for now, but something tells us it will be back.
 Coraline and her family are renting part of a very old house.
 Other people live in the house, too. First, there are two elderly roommates, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible (what
names!), who used to be actresses.
 These women have a lot of dogs and they always call Coraline "Caroline." That's kind of annoying.
 The other neighbor is a weird old man who lives upstairs. He has a mouse circus, supposedly, although Coraline
thinks he just made it up (he seems to be a little crazy).
 Coraline enjoys exploring and she spends a lot of time in the garden at her new home.
 When Miss Spink and Miss Forcible warn Coraline about a dangerous well (you know, where water comes from),
she of course goes to look for it.
 In her explorations, Coraline also spots a black cat, who seems to be watching her.
 Coraline keeps herself busy exploring outside for two weeks, but one day it rains, and she's stuck inside. Bo-ring.
 Both of her parents work from home, and they tell her to go entertain herself: her father suggests she count
random things in the house. Hmmm, okay.
 As she's wandering around the house, Coraline finds a weird door that doesn't go anywhere: it just has a brick
wall behind it.
 Her mom explains that the wall is part of the flat (or apartment) next door. The building used to be one giant
house, but now it's a house with a bunch of smaller apartments inside it. Mystery solved.
  Coraline notices that her mother doesn't re-lock the door after she's opened it to show Coraline. (No need when
there's a brick wall behind it, we guess.)
 That night, her father makes a pretty gross dinner, so Coraline makes herself some microwave pizza. She's pretty
self-sufficient it seems.
 After she goes to bed, Coraline hears a weird scuttling sound in the house; when she looks, she sees a shadow and
decides to follow it. (Now we're sure this isn't a good idea.)
 The shadow shape goes under that door with the brick wall behind it. Hmmm.
 Coraline turns on the light and doesn't see anything, but the door is now open a tiny crack. Oh well.
 She goes back to bed and has dreams about the strangest things, like rats singing a crazy song. Their song goes
like this:
 "We are small but we are many/ We are many we are small /We were here before you rose/ We will be here when
you fall" (1.83). Kind of spooky, right?

Chapter 2

 The next day, it stops raining. Even though it's foggy, Coraline decides to go for a walk.
 While she's out, she runs into Miss Forcible, who starts to tell Coraline about her days as an actress. That's all the
two roommates ever talk about, really.
 Coraline wanders on and comes across the weird old man. Speaking of weird, he tells her the mice have a
message for her: "Don't go through the door" (2.31).
 To top off the strangeness, he says the mice call her Coraline instead of Caroline, which is what he thinks her
name is. (Wait, then how do the mice know her name? Strange.)
 Coraline gets bored again and goes inside; school doesn't start until next week.
 What should she do? Well, her mother tells her keep herself occupied; she draws and tries to talk to her dad, but
he's busy working.
 So she goes out again to visit Miss Spink and Miss Forcible. Now that's a party.
 The women, whose full names are April Spink and Miriam Forcible, serve her tea and continue to discuss the
theater and their glory days on the stage.
 Miss Spink then offers to tell Coraline's future by reading her tea leaves. (She's kind of like Professor
Trelawney in Harry Potter, right?)
 The two women look at the tea leaves and agree that Coraline is in serious danger. Yikes.
 Coraline is worried and asks them what she should do. Suddenly she trusts these ladies?
 Anyway, they tell her to be careful and they give her a stone with a hole in it that's supposed to be a good luck
charm.
 Coraline goes back home and thinks that maybe danger could be exciting. Maybe.

Chapter 3

 Coraline and her mom go shopping for back-to-school clothes and supplies the next day while her dad heads off
to spend the day in London on business.
 Coraline really wants her mom to buy her some green gloves, but her mom ignores her and only buys her school
uniform clothes, which are all gray and navy. Ick.
 When they get home, Coraline asks what's in the empty apartment next door, but her mom doesn't know.
 Coraline's mom goes to the grocery store to get some food, but Coraline stays behind. Probably a bad call
because, surprise surprise, she gets pretty bored.
 Finally, Coraline manages to get her mom's house keys and goes into the drawing room, where her family keeps
their fancy old furniture.
 Once she's there, she uses the big black key to unlock the door. You know the one.
 But this time, the bricks behind the door are gone. Instead, there's a dark hallway. Strange. Actually, incredibly
strange.
 We might have run away, but Coraline goes down the hallway, curious as ever.
 When she gets out of the hallway on the other end, she realizes she's still in her own house. The room is the same
as the one she just left. How did that happen?
 But wait: there's a picture on the wall that's a little different.
 Coraline hears a familiar voice from the kitchen: it sounds like her mom.
  Wait, not so fast. In the kitchen, there's a woman who looks like her mom, but she's taller and thinner and
definitely paler.
 Oh, and she has big black buttons for eyes. So there's that.
 Once again, instead of running in the other direction, Coraline asks who she is. Her response? She's Coraline's
"other mother." Hmmm.
 Apparently Coraline is cool with this, so she goes out to get her other father for lunch.
 Her other mother tells her that they've been waiting for her; now they can be a family. Sweet enough, we guess.
 She then serves Coraline a delicious lunch that's practically a feast. Still not complaining.
 After lunch, the other mother tells Coraline to go play in her room with the rats. Huh?
 She goes, and sees that her other room is painted pink and green and has all sorts of weird, magical toys in it.
 There are also some rats under the bed. Gross.
 The rats put on a little show and sing a weird song like the one Coraline heard in her dream the night before. This
is getting spooky...
 Next up: the other version of the weird old man stops by to collect his rats. They all crawl on him and he goes
home to feed them their dinner.
 Thankfully, Coraline says no when he invites her to come with him. First good decision she's made, we think.
 Instead, Coraline goes outside to explore, and her other parents stand by the door and wave her goodbye.

Chapter 4

 Coraline discovers that the other outside looks a lot like home, except there are some blinking lights over the door
to Miss Forcible and Miss Spink's place.
 Coraline goes to investigate, of course.
 She hears something behind her. It seems to be the black cat from home, but now it can talk. Or Coraline can hear
it, at any rate.
 The cat talks and talks and keeps getting offended by Coraline. She also learns that it doesn't have a name (cats
don't have names, duh).
 Before it wanders away and disappears, the cat tells her it was smart to bring "protection." This cat knows
something we don't, that's for sure.
 Coraline finally goes into Miss Forcible and Miss Spink's place, and inside she finds a big theater.
 An usher (who happens to be a dog) shows Coraline to her seat. Turns out the rest of the audience members are all
dogs, too.
 On stage, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible come out and perform a variety act. When it's over, they unzip their
entire bodies and step out. Yep, that's right. They step out of their bodies.
 Now they are two young women with – wait for it – black button eyes.
 The younger versions of Miss Spink and Miss Forcible invite Coraline on stage to help with their act. They put a
balloon on top of Coraline's head and throw a knife at the balloon to pop it. Yikes!
 Luckily they don't miss, and they actually give Coraline a small box of chocolate for helping out.
 The dog next to her asks for her chocolates – that's all dogs eat in the other world – and she gives them to him.
This is getting weirder by the minute.
 The show keeps going, but Coraline decides to head back to her other home and see her other parents again.
 When she arrives, they tell her they want her to stay with them forever.
 But first, Coraline has to have black button eyes put in. Um, no thanks!
 Coraline decides it's time to head back to her real home.
 Her other parents say that they'll see her again soon when she comes back to stay. That's unsettling. For good
reason, Coraline is scared as she heads back down the dark passageway.
 She finally gets home though. Whew.
 And guess what? The bricks are back in place behind the door.

Chapter 5

 Coraline locks the door behind her. Smart move.

 Her parents aren't home, so she just waits. And waits. And waits. Neither of her parents come back.
 She doesn't freak out quite yet. Instead, she eats a frozen pizza for dinner and watches some TV before going to
bed.
 When she gets up the next morning, she discovers that her parents are still gone.
 Coraline goes to have tea with Miss Forcible and Miss Spink and she tells them that her parents are missing.
Unfortunately, the two women think Coraline is just being silly. Just like everyone else, they ignore her.
 She has to fend for herself, so she goes to the store and buys some more food and drinks.
 When she gets home, she writes a story about a girl who danced until her feet turned to sausages.
 Sounds like Coraline saw The Red Shoes.
 Then she has a bubble bath. She's keeping herself busy, that's for sure.
 Coraline wakes up around three in the morning and her parents still aren't there. She starts to cry – we would, too!
– and she goes to sleep in her parents' bed.
 Suddenly, the black cat wakes her up. Losing hope, Coraline asks if it knows where her parents are. Instead of
answering, it walks off, and Coraline follows it to a hallway mirror.
 Turns out her parents are inside the mirror. Yep. Inside the mirror.
 Her father breathes on the glass and writes "Help Us." Are you freaking out yet? We are.
 Coraline goes to call the police, but the police officer thinks she's just a silly kid who had a bad dream. He tells
her to drink some hot chocolate and go back to bed.
 With no options left, Coraline decides to take matters into her own hands.
 She gathers up supplies (important stuff, like candles and apples), gets the black key, and walks back toward the
door.
 The black cat comes with her, and before she opens the door, she tells the cat a story.
 This is her story: one day, when she was younger, she and her dad were exploring (as usual) and they disturbed a
wasps' nest.
 Coraline's dad told her to run, and he stayed behind and got stung in order to give her a chance to get away.
 Later that day, Coraline's dad went back to the wasps' nest to get his glasses, which had fallen off.
 He told Coraline that he wasn't scared when she was running away, because he knew he was helping her. That
wasn't bravery. But when he went back for his glasses, he was scared because he knew the wasps were there
waiting. That was brave.
 Having finished her story, Coraline unlocks the door and steps through.
 Just then, the cat starts to talk and it wonders aloud why Coraline is going back to the other world.
 She says she has to save her parents. Of course! She's definitely scared but she's doing it anyway. She's being
brave, just like her dad was.
 Coraline gets to the other world and her other parents welcome her back "home."
 This time, she refuses their food and tells them that she wants her real parents back.
 Her other mother says her parents probably got tired of her and left. Now that's just mean.
 Coraline doesn't buy it: she calls the other mother a liar.
 The other mother decides to prove herself. She shows Coraline a scene in the mirror: her parents are returning
from vacation and are talking about how great it is not to have Coraline around anymore.
 Coraline isn't that gullible: she knows it's all fake.
 Her other mother starts to get angry and sends a rat to get the black key to the door. She locks it and tells Coraline
to go to bed.
 The black cat comes up to Coraline in the hallway and tells her to challenge the other mother. He thinks she
should play some sort of game to get her parents back.
 Coraline goes to her other room, which is now creepier than ever, and goes to bed. Things aren't looking good.

Chapter 6

 When Coraline wakes up, she's confused and disoriented. Then she remembers what happened and knows she's in
the other world.
 She gets dressed and finds a lot of really cool clothes that she'd love to have at home.
 Coraline puts the stone that Miss Spink and Miss Forcible gave her in her pocket; as she does this, she notices that
her head starts to clear up a little. Finally, something good.
 Coraline's other mother is busy fixing the doors to keep the cat out, so she decides to talk to her other father
instead.
 He looks sort of tired and weird today. He tells Coraline that her other mother "made" the house and the grounds
and then waited for Coraline. Talk about planning ahead.
 Her other father refuses to say more, so Coraline goes exploring and finds a strange snow globe with two people
inside it.
  She then goes outside and walks to the edge of the world the other mother had created: beyond the house and the
yard there is just mist and... nothingness. So it's not even a whole world.
 The cat comes to talk to Coraline again, but she gets upset when it chases after a rat and torments it before eating
it. Not cool, cat.
 Coraline goes back inside and looks for her parents in the mirror again, but they aren't there. That's no help.
 Her other mother comes up behind her and says they should play a game, and Coraline notices that the other
mother doesn't have a reflection in the mirror. Whoa.
 Coraline tells the other mother that she wants her real parents back.
 The two argue back and forth for a while.
 Finally, the other mother gets fed up: she opens up the mirror and puts Coraline inside. Uh oh.
 She tells Coraline she can come out when she's learned her manners and is ready to be a loving daughter. Now
that's what we call a nasty time out.

Chapter 7

 Coraline tries to find a way out from inside the mirror, but she comes up with zilch. Nada. Nothing. You get the
picture.
 But then Coraline bumps into some people in the dark: there are three other children in the mirror room with her!
 One of the kids, a boy, talks in a very old-fashioned way, saying things like "art thou." The other two children are
girls.
 All three of them have been in trapped in the other world a very long time. The other mother, who they call the
beldam (an old-fashioned word for witch), stole their souls.
 The children tell Coraline that she still has a chance to get free if she can save her parents.
 One of the girls asks Coraline to also find her soul and the souls of her two friends in the room. That's quite a
request.
 Coraline eats her apple and then falls asleep in the room while the ghost children comfort her.
 As she drifts off, she hears one of them telling her to look through the stone.

Chapter 8

 After a while, the other mother comes into the mirror room, looking much better. She picks up Coraline as if she's
a little girl and carries her into the kitchen, putting her down on the counter top.
 The other mother tries to play nice (she even fixes her a delicious breakfast), but Coraline still isn't buying it.
 Coraline challenges the other mother, suggesting that they play a game.
 If Coraline loses she'll stay in the other world forever and be the other mother's daughter. But if Coraline wins, the
other mother has to let Coraline, her parents, and the other three children go.
 The other mother agrees. Excellent.
 Coraline says they can play a finding-things game, where she'll find her parents and the souls of the other
children.
 The other mother agrees again.
 Our heroine eats the breakfast the other mother made. We can't blame her, she's starving.
 Before starting the game, she makes the other mother swear to play fair. The other mother swears on her mother's
grave and then on her right hand. Naturally.
 Coraline starts to explore the kitchen, looking for clues.
 The other mother refuses to give Coraline any hints and then she just disappears, which kind of freaks Coraline
out.
 Coraline wanders back to the hall mirror, holding the stone with the hole in it. Interesting: the stone looks green in
the mirror, and there's a green trail coming out of Coraline's room.
 She follows the color to her room and starts to go through her toys.
 Just then, she remembers what the kids said in the mirror room: look through the stone.
 She looks through the hole in the stone and suddenly, the whole world changes: everything suddenly appears gray
and flat, like a sketch.
 But there's one spot of color in the room.
 Coraline goes to it and picks it up: it looks like a red marble. But wait, it's the soul of the little boy! It speaks, and
tells Coraline to hurry on and find the others.
 Coraline feels newly determined: she changes back into her pajamas and puts the marble in her pocket.
  When she steps outside her room, there's a vicious, cold wind blowing.
 Coraline shouts for her other mother to play fair and (ta-da!) the wind stops.
 She goes outside and heads over to Miss Spink and Miss Forcible's place, which is dark and abandoned. The dogs
now look like bats and are all hanging from the ceiling.
 With hope in her heart, she looks through the stone and tries to find something that might be a soul.
 She sees something bright, the size of a marble, inside a weird gray blob. Not too specific, we know.
 Coraline goes up to it and sees that it's like a cocoon with two squashed figures inside; one of the figures is
holding the marble-soul.
 Coraline is terrified, but she reaches inside the cocoon and manages to grab the marble. Slowly, the creature's
fingers pry loose and Coraline gets the marble out.
 She notices that the faces of the two figures resemble Miss Spink and Miss Forcible.
 Weird. And gross. Run for it, Coraline.
 Miss Spink and Miss Forcible wake up and start yelling "thief." Then the dog-bats wake up and start flying
around at Coraline.
 She hears a girl's voice in her head now, telling her to run.
 And run she does.

Chapter 9

 Outside, the world is starting to lose its form: everything is all gray and swirling.
 The other mother is waiting for Coraline, looking furious. She tells Coraline that she loves her and offers her a
key to the empty apartment next door.
 Coraline hears two of the children telling her not to go in the room; it's probably a trap.
 Coraline agrees and goes in anyway, but the apartment is empty.
 She notices a bad smell coming from a cellar, so she goes down to investigate.
 There's a pile of garbage and junk in a corner. Oh, and there's a foot sticking out from under the pile.
 Coraline looks closer and discovers that it's a blobby, disgusting, monster-like thing.
 That thing is her other father. Yep: the other mother chucked him there because she was angry.
 Coraline is grossed out but she also feels really sorry for him. She tells him to fight the other mother, but he says
he can't.
 Suddenly, he changes and comes after Coraline. Yikes!
 Quick on her feet, Coraline yanks out his button eyes so he can't see her.
 She tries to escape but he can still hear her and he continues to come after her, so she runs for her life. She
manages to get out of the cellar and slam the door on her other father. She rushes out of the empty apartment and
locks the door. Whew.
 She's tired and scared and really just wants to go home, but she gathers her courage and heads to the apartment
upstairs.

Chapter 10

 Coraline goes up to where the crazy old man lives. Or the other version of him, at least.
 She feels like the old man's apartment is going to be even worse than the cellar, but she goes inside anyway: she's
tough as nails, remember.
 Inside, there are tons of rats scurrying about and whispering a creepy little song.
 A voice starts to whisper to Coraline, telling her to stay in the other world: if she goes home she'll just be bored
and ignored; here, she can have whatever she wants.
 But Coraline is sure she wants to go home: she doesn't want to live in some crazy world run by the other mother.
 All of the sudden, the old man starts to fall apart. Literally. He was made up completely of rats.
 Gross. Gross. Gross.
 Gross.
 Okay, moving on. The largest black rat is holding a gray marble in his paws: it's the last one Coraline needs.
 She chases after the rat, but she can't catch it and it gets away. She falls to the ground, scraping her knee and
feeling like a failure.
 But then she hears a cough. It's the black cat: he killed the rat and got the marble for Coraline!
 Unfortunately, the last little girl, whose soul was just rescued, tells Coraline that the other mother doesn't plan to
let Coraline go, ever.
  But Coraline has the three souls now, and she goes to get her parents. She feels determined.
 Coraline thinks about her old house and suddenly realizes where her parents must be.
 The cat starts to freak out. It says that the other mother has flattened out the world she made and now there aren't
any ways in or out. Talk about claustrophobia!
 Coraline comforts the cat and tells him that she'll get them both home safely.
 Coraline goes up to her own apartment, which now looks like a child's drawing.
 She opens the door and goes inside, three souls and a stone in her pocket and a cat in her arms.

Chapter 11

 Coraline's apartment looks normal, but the other mother is there waiting, looking furious as ever.
 She follows Coraline into the drawing room and Coraline shows her the souls she has found.
 The other mother reaches for her, and Coraline knows that she won't let her go.
 As a diversion, Coraline bluffs and tells her other mother that she knows her real parents are hidden in the
passageway between the two worlds.
 She is hoping that the other mother will open the door to prove her wrong. Then she'll run through it and make a
break for home.
 Sure enough, the other mother unlocks the door and turns around to gloat when it's empty.
 Coraline responds to this by throwing the cat at the other mother's head. Awesome!
 Quickly, Coraline grabs the snow globe, shoves it in her pocket, and runs for it, yelling for the cat to follow her.
 She tries to close the door behind her, but it's super heavy, and she can't get it shut.
 Suddenly, five other ghostly people appear in the hallway with her and help her shut the door.
 Three of the people are the children she rescued. And the other two are her parents. Yes!
 Coraline hears her real mother's voice in her head, and it gives her enough strength to finish shutting the door.
 Just as Coraline is closing the door, though, the other mother screams and shoves her hand right in there, blocking
the door from closing completely.
 But with their last strength, Coraline and her friends and parents finally manage shut the door all the way.
 Coraline runs down the hallway and finally bursts out into her own apartment in the real world. Whew!
 She's never been so relieved in her life.
 Coraline apologizes to the cat for throwing him; he purrs at her, so it seems like he's forgiven her.
 Our leading lady then curls up in an arm chair and goes into a very deep (and well-deserved) sleep.

Chapter 12


Coraline's mother (real mother, yay!) wakes her up and tells her it's almost time for dinner.
 She asks Coraline what happened to her pajamas and her knee, which is scraped. (What? Doesn't she remember?
She was stuck in a snow globe for crying out loud!)
 Coraline says she fell. Yeah, that's it... she fell. Nothing else.
 She goes to her room to get changed and clean up, and she pulls three marbles, an empty snow globe, and a black
key out of her pocket.
 She ties some string around the black key to make a necklace and puts it on under her shirt.
 All decked out in her key-jewelry (pretty trendy, C!), Coraline then goes to see her dad and gives him a big hug.
She even eats the pizza he made for dinner, which – to be honest – isn't very good.
 Coraline goes to bed, still wearing the key around her neck, and she keeps the three marbles under her pillow.
 While sleeping, Coraline dreams a very strange dream. Here's how it goes down:
 She is outside having a very nice picnic with three other children. No big deal.
 There's a boy wearing red knee-breeches, a girl in a brown dress and bonnet, and another girl with blonde hair and
fairy wings. Still sounds okay to us. And hey, everyone's having a great time.
 After they're done playing, the children all return to their picnic and eat ice cream. The fairy girl opts out and eats
flowers instead. Kind of gross, but it's a dream, so we'll let it slide.
 Coraline, feeling relaxed, says she's glad it's all over.
 Hasn't she ever heard of jinxing yourself? Well, if not, she's about to learn the hard way.
 After she says that, the other kids get sort of quiet and Coraline realizes that the danger isn't totally over yet.
  Her friends can't tell her exactly what is going on, but they do give her some pretty bad news: the beldam, the
other mother, isn't done yet. Coraline has to be careful.
 Then they all move on to the afterlife. The end. (The end of the dream, that is.)
 When Coraline wakes up early the next morning, she feels like something is moving and she hears the noises to
match.
 She investigates, of course, and discovers that it's – wait for it – the other mother's right hand. Just her hand!
 That creepy, dismembered right hand is after the black key. She just knows it.
 The hand (so weird, we know!) scurries out of the house.

Chapter 13

 Something needs to be done, so Coraline goes back to bed and makes a plan. (All of Shmoop's best thinking
happens in bed, too. You have to be comfortable, right?)
 She discovers that the three marbles have shattered, and the souls inside them have gone. In any case, Coraline
puts the shards of the marbles into a nice box. Kind of like a little burial.
 The next day, the hand is still missing. The case of the missing hand continues.
 As we kind of figured, Coraline's parents don't seem to remember anything about being trapped in a snow globe.
Now that's some major memory loss.
 Coraline heads next door to have tea with Miss Spink and Miss Forcible. Wonder if they'll remember anything.
 The two ladies take the opportunity to tell Coraline her fortune again: they say that everything looks great, except
for this weird hand that's reaching for something. Uh oh.
 One of the women's dogs has a weird cut on his side, and Coraline knows the other mother's hand is still on the
loose. Only an evil hand could do that to an innocent puppy.
 Once again, Coraline has a restless night making plans. In the middle of planning, she spots the other mother's
hand on the windowsill, trying to get in her room. Gah! This needs to end, and fast.
 The next day Coraline tells her mom that she's going to have a picnic with her dolls, and she asks for an old
tablecloth to use.
 Coraline's mom thinks she's being kind of weird, playing with her dolls, but she doesn't press: she gives her a
disposal plastic tablecloth and tells her to be back for lunch.
 Sneaky Coraline has something up her sleeve: she heads straight to the well.
 She removes the boards on the well, which are pretty heavy, and puts the tablecloth over the hole. Then she sets
up her dolls and their tea cups to make it look like a picnic.
 La di da... Coraline heads back home, swinging that good ol' key of hers.
 On her way, she stops by Miss Spink and Miss Forcible's place to ask after their dog. It sure isn't good news: the
women tell her that Mr. Bobo thinks a weasel attacked their poor pup.
 Mr. Bobo! That's the crazy man upstairs, it turns out; he's from a Romanian circus family. Coraline thinks this is
awesome, and so do we.
 She loudly announces that she's going to go play by the old tennis courts. Sounds like she wants people (or
hands...?) to know where she's headed.
 Once again, the women tell her to be careful of the well, but Coraline doesn't seem too worried. She goes back to
her tea party, singing a silly song.
 When she gets there, she starts to talk to her dolls and she puts the key right in the middle of the picnic cloth, over
the well.
 Coraline continues to chat with her dolls and waits... for the other mother's hand. She knows it's coming.
 Suddenly, the hand leaps out onto the table cloth and grabs the key. And just as Coraline had planned, it (key and
all) goes tumbling right down into the well.
 Success! Coraline quickly pulls the heavy planks back over the well and shuts the other mother in there for good.
Mission (finally) accomplished.
 The cat is delighted and comes over to join in the celebration. The two good guys (Coraline and the cat) walk
home together.
 On her way, she runs into Mr. Bobo and tells him her name is Coraline. He finally gets it right.
 Mr. Bobo also tells her that his mice want to perform for her sometime. Nothing is too weird for her now, and she
says she'll be happy to see them whenever they're ready.
 Before going home, Coraline goes to give the good-luck stone back to Miss Spink and Miss Forcible. Along with
the stone, she gives them both a hug. Aw.
  That night, Coraline goes to bed, excited for school. Usually she's nervous the night before school starts, but she's
not scared of anything anymore. You can understand why.
 As she goes to sleep, Coraline hears music from the mice circus and she dreams a sweet dream of playing with
three nice children in a meadow.

CHARACTERS

 Coraline Jones – protagonist, a little girl with big courage but to those around her she seems a little bland and
unmemorable
 The other mother (The Beldam) - also known as the beldam (which means witch), is the book's super creepy
villain
 Mr. Jones - Coraline's dad, tries his best to entertain his daughter
 Mrs. Jones - Coraline's mom, a distracted and busy woman who often ignores her daughter
 Miss Spink and Miss Forcible - former actresses who love to talk about their days in the theatre
 The Ghost Children - children trapped by the other mother for a very long time, ghost boy, ghost girl and girl
with wings (fairy)
 The black Cat - teamed up with Coraline and helped her escape from the other world
 The Other Father - more pathetic than scary, under the other mother's control
 The Other Miss Spink and Miss Forcible – young version of themselves
 Mr. Bobo (The man Upstairs) - a weirdo, he's trying to start a mouse circus
 Other Mr. Bobo – scary, runs a successful – and completely disturbing – rat circus instead of a mouse circus
 The Police officer – the person Coraline called to ask for help but thinks she is crazy

SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS

 Buttons – masks
 Buttons in the novel act much like masks in that they conceal. Buttons though conceal a being’s
intentions rather than identity. Coraline cannot read the Other Parent’s intentions, as they reveal no
perceptible emotion through their dead, plastic button eyes. She can’t even discern if they’re watching
her, as the buttons don’t rotate the way normal human eyes do. The buttons therefore become a symbol of
the inscrutability and inhumanity of the Other Parents.

 Key - freedom and power

 The key serves as a plot device and is central to the novel as such. The key allows the bearer access to the
human world and the dimension where the Other Mother/The Beldam lives. Both Coraline and the Other
Mother/The Beldam want possession of the key as it represents freedom and power for them both. The
Other Mother/The Beldam desires the key as it affords her freedom to move back and forth with impunity
between dimensions, allowing her both to hunt and escape reprisal as she pleases, which in turn gives her
immense power over her victims. Coraline wants the key because to her it is both her means of escape,
and as with any key, it can also lock doors barring entry giving her power over The Beldam, who can only
find prey in the human world.

 Mirrors - reflect the ugly truth behind it

 Coraline is both a respectful homage and an original take on Alice Through the Looking Glass and as
such, mirrors are a frequently occurring symbol in the story. In the human world, mirrors are just that,
tools to reflect images that are placed in front of it, truthfully revealing flaws. In the Beldam’s dimension
however, the whole place being nothing more than a twisted mirror image of our world, mirrors likewise
reflect the ugly truth behind it---revealing the dimension to be what it is: nothing but a deadly simulacrum
of our world created by the Beldam for luring in children.
 Food - parent’s indifference towards Coraline, bait
 Many people associate food with comfort, warmth, and family but not Coraline. Coraline’s food is often
cold, tasteless, or just plain weird because of her father’s culinary experimentation and/or her mother’s
busyness. The quality of Coraline’s food serves as a symbol of her parent’s indifference towards her. The
Beldam on the other hand serves her delicious, familiar food but despite its appeal and savor it too is
created without love or regard for Coraline as it is primarily used to bait her.

 Felines - Coraline’s practical feminine wisdom

 The cat has been associated with the occult, primal wisdom, and femininity throughout history and
throughout many different cultures. The same thinking applies in Coraline and the cat likewise becomes a
symbol of Coraline’s practical feminine wisdom being used to combat the manipulations of the Beldam.
The nearly feral black cat she finds near their house reveals itself to be a wise sentient creature capable of
human speech in the Beldam’s dimension. It warns Coraline about the dangers of the Beldam but delivers
the warning in cryptic statements. Later on the cat serves as her guide out of the Beldam’s dimension as it
is shown to be capable of freely moving between dimensions.