Go and pester Miss Spink or Miss Forcible, or the crazy old man upstairs.РІР‚Сњ And Coraline had to make sure she dressed up warm before she went out, for it was a very cold summer that year but go out she did, exploring, every day until the day it rained, when Coraline had to stay inside. Her mother made her come back inside for dinner and for lunch. That was how she spent her first two weeks in the house-exploring the garden and the grounds.

There was also a haughty black cat, who sat on walls and tree stumps and watched her but slipped away if ever she went over to try to play with it. She found a hedgehog, and a snakeskin (but no snake), and a rock that looked just like a frog, and a toad that looked just like a rock. There was a small knothole in one of the boards, and Coraline spent an afternoon dropping pebbles and acorns through the hole and waiting, and counting, until she heard the plop as they hit the water far below.Р”В¬oraline also explored for animals. The well had been covered up by wooden boards, to stop anyone falling in. She found it on the third day, in an overgrown meadow beside the tennis court, behind a clump of trees-a low brick circle almost hidden in the high grass. So Coraline set off to explore for it, so that she knew where it was, to keep away from it properly. On the first day Coraline's family moved in, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible made a point of telling Coraline how dangerous the well was, and they warned her to be sure she kept away from it. It was a big garden: at the very back was an old tennis court, but no one in the house played tennis and the fence around the court had holes in it and the net had mostly rotted away there was an old rose garden, filled with stunted, flyblown rosebushes there was a rockery that was all rocks there was a fairy ring, made of squidgy brown toadstools which smelled dreadful if you accidentally trod on them. The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring. She thought the old man was probably making it up. I am thinking of trying them on different types of cheese.РІР‚СњР”В¬oraline didn't think there really was a mouse circus. But the white mice will only play toodle oodle, like that. All the songs I have written for the mice to play go oompah oompah. Also, they refuse to play the songs I have written for them. РІР‚СљThe reason you cannot see the mouse circus,РІР‚Сњ said the man upstairs, РІР‚Сљis that the mice are not yet ready and rehearsed. РІР‚СљNo,РІР‚Сњ said Coraline quietly, РІР‚СљI asked you not to call me Caroline. РІР‚СљOne day, little Caroline, when they are all ready, everyone in the whole world will see the wonders of my mouse circus. He told Coraline that he was training a mouse circus. In the flat above Coraline's, under the roof, was a crazy old man with a big mustache.

Oh, don't let Hamish eat the fruitcake, or he'll be up all night with his tummy.РІР‚Сњ РІР‚СљYou see, Caroline,РІР‚Сњ Miss Spink said, getting Coraline's name wrong, РІР‚Сљboth myself and Miss Forcible were famous actresses, in our time. Once upon a time Miss Spink and Miss Forcible had been actresses, as Miss Spink told Coraline the first time she met her. They were both old and round, and they lived in their flat with a number of ageing Highland terriers who had names like Hamish and Andrew and Jock. Miss Spink and Miss Forcible lived in the flat below Coraline's, on the ground floor. There were other people who lived in the old house. It was a very old house-it had an attic under the roof and a cellar under the ground and an overgrown garden with huge old trees in it.Р”В¬oraline's family didn't own all of the house-it was too big for that. ChestertonР”В¬oraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the house.

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

In the book and film coraline