Teach Primary Issue 18.2

www.teachwire.net | 45 parents, Coraline feels bored and neglected. She explores the house and garden, meeting the eccentric tenants who share the house with her family along the way. Then, one afternoon, Coraline discovers the mysterious, bricked-up door in the drawing room is inexplicably leading to a parallel house, with an ‘other mother and father’. Now the wild adventure really begins. Neil Gaiman allows his readers to use their imaginations in building P art modern-day fairytale, part Alice in Wonderland and part spine-chilling adventure, Coraline explodes with imaginative imagery. Never afraid to push the boundaries of the absurd to the brink, Coraline is a gift for teachers looking to explore creative writing with their children. The story begins with Coraline having just moved into a somewhat mysterious old house. It’s the school holidays and as an only child of busy their own versions of his characters by keeping physical descriptions mostly minimal – an interesting area to explore with a class. The ‘door into another world’ idea can be linked to The Chronicles of Narnia , Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz , which are all great stimuli for descriptive writing activities. Coraline also contains many interesting big themes to talk about, such as: being brave – even when you feel afraid; the deception of appearances; It may be two decades old, but Neil Gaiman’s fantasy horror still intrigues and inspires young readers Coraline BOOK TOP I C KAREN HART Book topic KS2 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2002 T E ACH RE AD I NG & WR I T I NG