My Never Ending List

Another stellar graphic novel by Neil Gaiman, I am starting to be a stalker of this man. I have read the novel of Coraline but as I was volunteering the other day at the library, I came across this graphic novel as I was organizing this section in the children’s department. Neil’s name nice and bold right at the top, a picture of a timid Coraline holding a luminous, melting candle in her bare hands stared at me front and center and suddenly parts of the story started to come back to me. There is something about reading Neil’s stories, he immediately hooks you in and sets you on an exciting journey where along the way you will be entertained, amazed, and hungry for more. Inside his stories, if you look, you will find a message which Neil doesn’t come right out and state but it’s there. I enjoy being whisked away inside Neil’s stories, I don’t feel lost or confused as the pages melt away, I feel as if I am watching a movie in a book, a story were I am moving the speed of the movie by just how long I want to take in each scene. There is a mysterious element to this novel and by watching the characters movements and facial expressions, it is expressed and I am drawn not to just the words on the page but more to the illustrations and what they say. The creepy fingers, the eerie eyes, the long arms which seem so out of proportion for a person that I know something just is not right and those extra lines drawn on the faces, concern and age are pulling that person down. The novel was easy to follow as Coraline, not Caroline adjusts to her new home.