Clippings

Forgive any overlap with the blog; it’s unintentional.

Numerous articles about “adult” authors moving into children’s literature have mentioned Coraline, including Sally Lodge’s “Crossing Over” from the Sept. 2 Publishers Weekly; Mary Kate Tripp’s “‘Adult’ novelists ‘crossing over’ to juveniles” from the Sept. 19th Amarillo Globe News; Deborah Abbott’s “From adult novels to kids’ tales” in the Sept 9th Chicago Sun Times, Bel Mooney’s “Writing through the ages” in the August 28th Times of London; and Mary McNamara’s, “Happily Ever After” from the August 26th LA Times and the August 28th Chicago Tribune.

From Sally Lodge’s article:
…Not surprisingly, the children in their own lives provided the incentive for most of these writers to pen a book for young readers. Horror novelist Neil Gaiman, whose most recent bestseller for adults is American Gods, appears to have another hit on his hands in Coraline, released by HarperCollins in July with a 150,000-copy first printing. The publisher has already returned to press for this chilling fantasy aimed at readers eight and up, about a girl who walks through a door in her apartment to find herself in another world with “Other Parents” who cater to her every whim-until she wants to return to her former life. The book features art by Dave McKean, who is also the illustrator of Gaiman’s The Wolves in the Walls, a picture book due out from HarperCollins in fall 2003. In addition, the author has a contract with the publisher for another children’s novel (Gaiman’s first book for children, The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, was published by White Wolf in 1997).

Gaiman explains that he started Coraline about 10 years ago, when his daughter was just starting school. “I wanted to write something that Holly would read when she was nine or 10,” he remarked, “so I began writing this on my own time, between writing a monthly comic and a TV show. But I was so busy that the concept of ‘my own time’ ran out, and a few years ago I suddenly realized that Holly was already 12 and if I didn’t get a move on, this would never get written in time for her to read it.”

On the basis of several chapters, Gaiman landed a contract with HarperCollins and was then determined to finish the novel, religiously writing several lines each night before bedtime. Fittingly, he has adopted a parental attitude toward his first novel for youngsters: “With Coraline, I feel much as one does about one’s children. Perhaps because of the long writing process, as she goes out into the world, I feel proud of her rather than proud of what I did. Looking at the success of my adult books, I am apt to say, ‘I’m quite clever.’ But looking at Coraline, I think, ‘she’s very clever.’ “…

…Gaiman put this publishing phenomenon in historical perspective, commenting that more than a decade ago, he showed the first few chapters of Coraline to an editor friend who had worked in British publishing for 20 years. “He read it and told me that it was unpublishable,” Gaiman recalled. “He said that it was beautifully written but it wouldn’t work because it was obviously aimed at both adults and children, and anything targeted for both worlds couldn’t be published successfully. Now the novels of J.K. Rowling, Philip Pullman and Lemony Snicket, which are read by children and adults, have entirely changed the landscape. I feel very fortunate that now Coraline is not only publishable, it’s bestseller-able.”

HarperCollins editor Clarissa Hutton, who worked with executive publishing director Elise Howard on the editing of Coraline, noted that the book has already proven itself in both markets, crediting very positive reviews for attracting the attention of librarians and teachers, as well as adult readers. “Neil has an extremely loyal adult readership,” she said, “and though Coraline features a young character, the story has many of the same elements that make his adult literature so popular. It seemed that the first wave of purchasers were his adult fans, but now it is attracting children as well.” Chris Saad, owner of Chris’ Corner: Books for Kids & Teens in Philadelphia, remarked that the bulk of her sales of Coraline so far has been to adults “who are buying the novel for themselves rather than for their children.”

From Mary McNamara’s article:
…Neil Gaiman (American Gods and Stardust) also began writing Coraline for his daughter Holly, who was 5 at the time. But the book took a bit longer to write than he thought, and when he finished 10 years later, it was aimed more for his daughter Maddy, now 7. The result is an eerie tale about a girl who finds a door to a world that is almost like this one but not quite.

“I wanted to write a book they would enjoy when they were older,” he says, via e-mail. “A book that no one else had written.”…

…Gaiman would like to do another (children’s book), and hopes it will take him less than 10 years this time.

and from Deborah Abbott’s article:
Neil Gaiman, a popular adult horror writer, offers Coraline, illustrated by Dave McKean, a strange, sophisticated ghost story set in an unusual house Coraline and her distant parents move into a few days before school starts.

On the floor below Coraline live two retired actresses, Miss Forcible and Miss Spink, who declare Coraline is in danger. To help her, they give her a stone with a hole. On the floor above Coraline lives an old man who is training mice to perform in a circus, but the mice are held back from success by some unseen force.

Feeling bored, unloved and uncared for, Coraline slips into a fantasy world through a door in the drawing room, entering a house patterned after her own. This house holds the “other” mother and the “other” father with shining black button eyes who dote on her. One day, when she finds her real mother and father gone, she escapes to the fantasy house in search of them. Here she discovers ghost children whose souls have been captured, begging for release. Coraline, lucky stone in hand, offers to play a game with the “other” mother. If she wins, she gets to return to her own family and world. If Coraline loses, she becomes another lost soul joining the others.

From the sculpted, angular girl on the cover to the eerie blackline drawings throughout, this scary adventure is not for the very young (the jacket says ages 8 and up) or the weak-hearted. Young adults, however, may gobble it up. Here, again, we have to wait to see what the young critics say.