Coraline book club resources and teaching guide

Welcome to October’s NurtureStore Tween Book Club where we are reading and learning about Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

How to join the Coraline book club discussion

This month we’re reading the creepy novel Coraline by Neil Gaiman. Coraline finds another house, and parents, behind an old door in drawing room. If she steps through, she knows she might never come back. Phillip Pullman describes this as ‘a marvellously strange and scary book’ – a perfectly spooky book for Halloween month.

See more of the book at Amazon.

I’m running a real-life tween book club with my daughters and some of their home-educating friends. We’re meeting in a local cafe to chat about the book and share our opinions. You can join in with us online, here in the comments and on Instagram using #nurturestorebookclub.

All the children joining in are asked to:

:: read the book

:: consider the discussion questions (which you will find below, including a printable version)

:: share their opinions on the book and the discussion questions, and listen to each others’

:: bring along something to the group that they have produced, inspired by the book, to share with the others, so we are all teaching and learning from each other. It could be some fan fiction, art, a map, a recipe, a costume, a zine, research about the book’s setting, a quiz, a film of them acting out a scene, anything goes! This encourages everyone to take the book further, and explore an aspect of it that interests them. If you’re joining in online please share your creation with us in the comments, or on Instagram using #nurturestorebookclub.

The main page for NurtureStore’s Tween Book Club, with the annual book list and guide to running a book club with children is here.

 

Coraline discussion questions

Here are some discussion questions you can use to talk about the themes raised in Coraline. If you are joining in with our online book club, use the comments below to share your answers. You can also find a printable version of these discussion questions here.

1 :: If you had to pick just one word to describe the story of Coraline, what would your word be?

2 :: What do you think was the creepiest scene in the book?

3 :: One of the child souls says “Peradventure… if you could win your mama and papa back from the beldam, you could also win our souls.” Can you research and find some information about beldams?

4 :: Do any parts of the story remind you of other books you have read, or films you have seen, or fairy tales you have heard? Which ones?

5 :: The main idea of a story is the overall idea of the story, made up of the characters and the plot: Coraline goes through a strange door and has to battle with a beldam. The theme of a book is different. The theme is the central message of a book – sometimes it will be the moral of the story or the lesson the story is trying to share. What do you think is the main theme of Coraline? Are there any other themes in the book?

6 :: Coraline used several techniques to help her be brave. What are they? ( I can think of at least six.) What do you do when you need to be brave?

7 :: Who is the bravest person you know?

8 :: Parents and grandparents have been telling children scary stories (fairy tales and folk tales) for generations. Why do you think these stories often have scary elements? Do you think parents should tell their children scary stories? Why? Why not?

9 :: Neil Gaiman’s next book is called Norse Mythology and is his reincarnation of the old northern tales. Do you think all the stories writers turn into books should be new stories? Or should we re-tell old stories too? Why do you think this?

 

Join the book club discussion

1 :: Get your copy of the book from Amazon.

2 :: Get the printable Coraline discussion questions list here.

3 :: And share your answers with us in the comments.

 

Extra Coraline resources

Here are some extra resources you can use to learn about Coraline.

:: Neil Gaiman’s website is here.

:: Neil Gaiman’s website for children is here.

:: Listen to Mr. Gaiman read:

 

:: Find out why Mr. Gaiman wrote Coraline:

 

:: You can watch the film version of Coraline here.

:: Explore the Coraline Wiki here.

:: Read more about the difference between a story’s main idea and theme here.

:: You can find additional Coraline teaching resources here.