Quimby's entry

I wanted to choose a novel from Quimbys because I honestly don’t know anything about zines and...well... publishing novels is what plan on doing with my education. (I hope I wasn't supposed to choose a zine or something!) I was originally drawn to Coraline by Neil Gaiman because, obviously, it is a New York Times Best-seller and is going to be turned into a movie, but also because I was drawn to the eerie cover. It actually surprises me that a children’s book would have such a haunting looking cover, but it really fits the story. The story is of a young girl who is always exploring and often bored by her surroundings, but when she discovers a secret door in her house, she discovers a nearly identical family that is far more exciting, but with a colder, harsher look and big, black button eyes. It is a fantasy world where animals can talk and there are always new and exciting things. But there is a twist to that fantasy, as the new parents have kidnapped her real parents, and plan on locking her away from her old life forever, and to sew the buttons onto her eyes and make her one of them. There are other children trapped there as well, but they are trapped within the mirrors of the house. It is up to Coroline to save herself, her parents, and the other children. Neil Gaiman said of this book that, “It was a story, I learned when people began to read it, that children experienced as an adventure, but which gave adults nightmares. It's the strangest book I've written, it took the longest time to write, and it's the book I'm proudest of.”

There are illustrations inside the book that drew me to it in the bookstore as well. If i was just judging by his website, I would assume this is the first and last time the illustrator, Dave McKean, has been asked to draw for a childrens novel. His website might lead you to believe he is varying shades of mentally disturbed... but the dream-like, mystical qualities of the drawings in the novel are very appropriate for the story. Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean have collaborated on two other novels as well. Its good to see a collaboration like that and the way they promote each other.

Reading the book I thought it was edited very well. The font is the right size for a children’s novel (bigger than normal, but not too big). It is a book that can easily be enjoyed by an adult or a child. (In that sense, very Harry Potter-esque if I dare). I think, as an editor, I would choose different subjects or scenarios to illustrate in the book. I think the scenes they chose were very random. While I was reading the book, there were certain scenes that I found myself really wanting to see what Dave McKean would have drawn. I wanted to see these more so than the illustrations he chose to include. Like I said, I like the cover choice because that is what originally drew me in. Everything about the editorial choices certainly adds to the eeriness and mystery of the story, which I loved because it made me more excited to read it than I would have been otherwise.