Coraline door Neil Gaiman

Reading comprehension: second trimester

Exercise 1:

- (..) it had an attic under the roof and a cellar under the ground and an overgrown garden with huge old trees in it. (Pag. 11)

You still thinking about her? Man, you've got to get out of your attic.

- The old man shrugged. (Pag. 25)

He shrugged his shoulders.

- Day-Glo green gloves she likes a lot. (Pag. 33)

I want to paint my room day-glo blue, because if you go in my room the first thing that you will see is that color.

- ‘Well, you’re the expert on those things’ said the cat drily. (pag. 47)

The man who murdered his mom, talked drily.

- There was something irritatingly self-centered about the cat. (p48)

One person I know from school has something irritatingly, I don’t like her.

- .. day, and then we could be a proper family. (Pag. 39)

Something about his proper responses made her smile.

- The cat yawned slowly. (Pag. 48)

I yawn sometimes at school when the lessons are too boring.

- Coraline was woken by cold paws batting her face. (Pag. 64)

My cat was batting me while I was sleeping.

- The cat made no reply, but Coraline could imagine its voice. (Pag. 66)

I can't imagine what he was thinking to hide a thing like that from you.

- My dad took me for a walk on the wasteland. (Pag. 69)

The earth sort of a dirty wasteland.

- Coraline simply glared at the other mother. (Pag. 75)

She glared at the flower.

- She tugged on it, but it was tightly locked. (Pag. 78)

He tugged on her zipper, slowly pulling it down.

- The cat wrinkled its nose. (Pag. 78)

Milla wrinkled her nose at Imane.

- For a moment she felt utterly dislocated. (Pag. 81)

It was utterly ridiculous to be embarrassed.

- ‘There are some vermin problems’. (Pag. 84)

This proves a temptation to the vermin too great to be resisted.

- Pretty soon they seemed very approximate. (Pag. 87)

We have an approximate time frame and partial ID.

- Coraline shivered. (Pag. 90)

One day it was so cold that my brother shivered all the way home.

- Her lips were pursed. (Pag.94)

She pursed her lips and whistled softly.

- ‘ You may come out when you’ve learned some manners,’ said the other mother. (Pag. 95)

‘Jason had manners,’ she replied.

- And her hair was wriggling like snakes on a warm day. (Pag. 105)

She waved Sofia before climbing on top of the sink and wriggling through the window.

- The glass marble, a vivid pink yo-yo. (Pag. 113)

The woman has a vivid imagination.

- .. it would vanish, and she fumbled for the burning thing. (Pag. 114)

Cynthia fumbled with her napkin.

- Swishing it from side to side angrily. (Pag. 115)

She studied his cup of coffee, swishing the liquid around in it absently.

- .., as if it had been covered in jelly. (Pag. 119)

Snow covered his hair, and his skin was cold.

- Outside, the world had become a formless, swirling mist with no shapes or shadows behind it, (Pag. 122)

My grandma likes to watch “formless art”.

- It must be a trick. (Pag. 126)

You're trying to trick me again," she said with resolution.

- ‘ I bet she made you come down here as a punishment for telling me too much.’ (Pag. 130)

‘What will the punishment be, Mr. Johnson?’ asked a John, a bad boy.

- She started edging along the wall, heading towards the steps. (Pag. 131)

Five crosses are worked upon it, four in the corners and one in the middle, and there is an embroidered edging.'

- Whispered a dozen or more tiny voices, in that dark flat with the roof so low where.. (Pag. 135)

"It's good to be home," hewhispered, "with the people who mean the most to me."

- ‘ Little girl,’ said a rustling voice in a far room.

Suddenly he heard a rustling noise behind him.

Exercise 2:

1. Coraline:

Is a young girl who loves exploring. She has brown eyes and her hair is also brown. She’s the protagonist, because it’s her story.

2. Miss Forcible:

Miss Forcible is an old lady that lives with Miss Spink and is one of the neighbors of Coraline.

She can read the future in the leafs of a cup of tea. She was an actress. She gave the stone to Coraline.

3. Miss Spink:

Miss spink is also an old lady who lives with Miss Forcible. She used be an actress as well.

4. The Mother/miss Jones:

She has no time for Coraline, she doesn’t cook but only clean the house. After that she is always working.

5. The father/ mister Jones:

He aslo has no time for Coraline. He is always writing at his computer, that’s the reason why he has no time for Coraline. He cooks in the house and doesn’t clean anything.

6. Other Mother:

The other mother looks like coraline’s real mother. She has a white skin, has long fingers and she has no eyes but buttons. She’s tall and thin.

7. Other father:

The other father looks like the real father of Coraline. He is tall en thin. He wears glasses and has short black hair and he’s eyes are buttons.

8. The cat:

The cat is mysterious, black and sarcastic. He likes to play with people but he will help if he needs to.

Exercise 3:

1. Coraline finds the door.

2. She discovers the other world.

3. She sees that her other mother and other father have buttons as eyes

4. She finds out how to use the stone and find the souls of the children and her parents.

5. Coraline discovers that the hand of the other mother followed her in to the real world.

Exercise 4:

- Her other room in the other world

- Miss Forcible’s and Miss Pink’s apartment

- The dark corridor

- The little room behind the mirror where she meets the children

- The drawing room

- The well

Exercise 5:

The story is about a girl that finds a door but when she opens it there is nothing behind.

One night her parents disappear and she is alone for a few days. Then she goes open the door again, that leads to the other world when she discovers that she has another mother and father. The other mother wanted Coraline to stay in the other world so she could ‘love’ her and sew black buttons on the her eyes. Coraline doesn’t want to stay and she search for her parents. But the other mother doesn’t think it’s a good idea. The other mother is angry and she is doing weird things like putting Coraline behind a mirror. Coraline discovers the souls of three children who were trapped behind the mirror for a long time because they were just souls. After that she challenged her other mother to a game. Coraline had to find the souls of her father, mother and the children, if Coraline finds them she could go home and live with her family. But if she loses she must stay in the other world with her other mother and other father. And after that she needs to sew black buttons on her eyes.

Exercise 6:

You can’t choose your family. So you need to accept it even if your mother and father are no good people.

Go your own way and be curious because you never know what you will find. Maybe a door to another world? Or maybe you find a women who said that she is your other mother? You never know what will happen in your life. Coralineis a brave girl and look now she has a story to tell to her children.

“Because,' she said, 'when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave.”