Coraline moves into an old house with her family and explores the large garden and grounds, finding a well, animals, and eccentric neighbors. On a rainy day when she cannot explore outside, she becomes bored inside and searches for something to do, coming across a nature program on camouflage. The house contains mysteries and interesting characters that Coraline discovers through her adventures.
Coraline
by Neil Gaiman
Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the
house.
It was a very old house -- it had an attic under the roof and a cellar
under the ground and an overgrown garden with huge old trees in it.
Coraline's family didn't own all of the house, it was too big for that.
Instead they owned part of it.
There were other people who lived in the old house.
Miss Spink and Miss Forcible lived in the flat below Coraline's, on
the ground floor. They were both old and round, and they lived in
their flat with a number of aging highland terriers who had names
like Hamish and Andrew and Jock. Once upon a time Miss Spink
and Miss Forcible had been actresses, as Miss Spink told Coraline
the first time she met her.
"You see, Caroline," Miss Spink said, getting Coraline's name
wrong, "Both myself and Miss Forcible were famous actresses, in
our time. We trod the boards, luvvy. Oh, don't let Hamish eat the
fruit cake, or he'll be up all night with his tummy."
"It's Coraline. Not Caroline. Coraline," said Coraline.
In the flat above Coraline's, under the roof, was a crazy old man
with a big mustache. He told Coraline that he was training a mouse
circus. He wouldn't let anyone see it.
"One day, little Caroline, when they are all ready, everyone in the
whole world will see the wonders of my mouse circus. You ask me
why you cannot see it now. Is that what you asked me?"
Coraline
by Neil Gaiman
"No," said Coraline quietly, "I asked you not to call me Caroline. It's
Coraline."
"The reason you cannot see the Mouse Circus," said the man
upstairs, "is that the mice are not yet ready and rehearsed. Also, they
refuse to play the songs I have written for them. All the songs I have
written for the mice to play go oompah oompah. But the white mice
will only play toodle oodle, like that. I am thinking of trying them
on different types of cheese."
Coraline didn't think there really was a mouse circus. She thought
the old man was probably making it up.
The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring.
She explored the garden. It was a big garden: at the very back was
an old tennis court, but no-one in the house played tennis and the
fence around the court had holes in it and the net had mostly rotted
away; there was an old rose garden, filled with stunted, flyblown
rose-bushes; there was a rockery that was all rocks; there was a fairy
ring, made of squidgy brown toadstools which smelled dreadful if
you accidentally trod on them.
There was also a well. Miss Spink and Miss Forcible made a point
of telling Coraline how dangerous the well was, on the first day
Coraline's family moved in, and warned her to be sure she kept
away from it. So Coraline set off to explore for it, so that she knew
where it was, to keep away from it properly.
Coraline
by Neil Gaiman
She found it on the third day, in an overgrown meadow beside the
tennis court, behind a clump of trees -- a low brick circle almost
hidden in the high grass. The well had been covered up by wooden
boards, to stop anyone falling in. There was a small knot-hole in one
of the boards, and Coraline spent an afternoon dropping pebbles and
acorns through the hole, and waiting, and counting, until she heard
the plop as they hit the water, far below.
Coraline also explored for animals. She found a hedgehog, and a
snake-skin (but no snake), and a rock that looked just like a frog,
and a toad that looked just like a rock.
There was also a haughty black cat, who would sit on walls and tree
stumps, and watch her; but would slip away if ever she went over to
try to play with it.
That was how she spent her first two weeks in the house -- exploring
the garden and the grounds.
Her mother made her come back inside for dinner, and for lunch;
and Coraline had to make sure she dressed up warm before she went
out, for it was a very cold summer that year; but go out she did,
exploring, every day until the day it rained, when Coraline had to
stay inside.
"What should I do?" asked Coraline.
"Read a book," said her mother. "Watch a video. Play with your
toys. Go and pester Miss Spink or Miss Forcible, or the crazy old
man upstairs."
