Notes

6-7.) She reached up and took a string of keys from the top of the kitchen doorframe. she sorted through them carefully, and selected the oldest, biggest, blackest, rustiest key. They went into the drawing room. She unlocked the door with the key. The door swung open.
24.)Coraline stopped and listened. she knew she was doing something wrong, and she was trying to listen for her mother coming back, but she heard nothing. then Coraline put her hand on the doorknob and turned it; and, finally, she opened the door.

it opened on to a dark hallway. the bricks had gone as if they'd never been there. there was a cold, musty smell coming through the open doorway: it smelled like something very old and very slow. Coraline went through the door.

25.) She looked a little like Coraline's mother. Only.... only her skin was white as paper. only she was taller and thinner. only her fingers were too long, and they never stopped moving, and her dark red fingernails were curved and sharp. "Coraline?" the woman said. "is that you?" and then she turned around. her eyes were big black buttons

33.)She turned around. standing on the wall next to her was a large black cat, identical to the large black cat she'd seen in the grounds at home. "good afternoon," said the cat

43.) "if you want to stay," said her other father, "there's only one little thing we'll have to do, so you can stay here for ever and always." they went into the kitchen. on a china plate on the kitchen table was a spool of black cotton, and a long silver needle, and, beside them, two large black buttons.

47.) Coraline went to the freezer and took out the spare loaf of frozen bread in the bottom compartment. she made herself some toast, with jam and peanut butter. she drank a glass of water. she waited for her parent to come back.

54.) the mirror showed the corridor behind her; that was only to be expected. but reflected in the mirror were her parents. they stood awkwardly in the reflection of the hall. they seemed sad and alone. as Coraline watched, they waved to her, slowly, with limp hands. coraline's father had his arm around her mother.

57.)she took her first step down the dark corridor. she could smell dust and damp and miustiness. the cat padded along beside her. "and why was that?" asked the cat, although it sounded barely interested. "because," she said, "when you're scared but you still do it anyway, <em>that's</em> brave."

72.)"but how can you walk away from something and still come back to it?" "easy," said the cat. "think of somebody walking around the world. you start out walking away from something and end up coming back to it." "Small world," said Coraline. "it's big enough for her," said the cat. "spiders' webs only have to be large enough to catch flies."

90.) "and what is it you think you should be finding in this hide-and-go-seek game, Coraline jones?" Coraline hesitated. then, "my parents," said Coraline. "and the souls of the children behind the mirror." the other mother smiled at this, triumphantly, and Coraline wondered if she had made the right choice.

105.) "she does not mean you well," whispered a ghost voice in her ear. "we do not believe that she would help you. it must be a trick." Coraline said, "yes, you're right, I expect." then she put the key in the lock and turned it. silently, the door swung open, and silently Coraline walked inside
118.)
122.) and, Coraline realized with surprise, that bit was easy. she knew exactly where her parents were. if she had stopped to think, she might have known where they were all along. the other mother could not create. she could only transform, and twist, and change

126.) it was funny, Coraline thought. the other mother did not look anything at all like her own mother. she wondered how she had ever been deceived into imagining a resemblance.

134)the light that came through the picture window was daylight, real golden late-afternoon daylight, not a white mist light. the sky was a robin's-egg blue, and Coraline could see trees and, beyond the trees, green hills, which faded on the horizon into purples and grays. the sky had never seemed so <em>sky</em>, the world had never seemed so <em>world</em>