Coraline

new school clothes were laid out carefully on her chair for her to put on when she woke.
    Normally, on the night before the first day of term, Coraline was apprehensive and nervous. But, she realised, there was nothing left about school that could scare her any more.
    She fancied she could hear sweet music on the night air: the kind of music that can only be played on the tiniest silver trombones and trumpets and bassoons, on piccolos and tubas so delicate and small that their keys could only be pressed by the tiny pink fingers of white mice.
    Coraline imagined that she was back again in her dream, with the two girls and the boy under the oak tree in the meadow, and she smiled.
    As the first stars came out Coraline finally allowed herself to drift into sleep, while the gentle upstairs music of the mouse circus spilled out on to the warm evening air, telling the world that the summer was almost over.

Also by Neil Gaiman from Bloomsbury
     
    Novels
     
    The Graveyard Book
    Odd and the Frost Giants
     
    Short Stories
     
    M is for Magic
    Dark Alchemy
     
    Picture Books
     
    Illustrated by Dave McKean
    Crazy Hair
    The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish
    The Wolves in the Walls
     
    Illustrated by Charles Vess
    Instructions
    Blueberry Girl
     
    Illustrated by Gris Grimly
    The Dangerous Alphabet
     
    Graphic Novels
     
    Illustrated by Dave McKean
    Signal to Noise
    The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch
    MirrorMask
     
    Illustrated by P. Craig Russell
    Coraline

Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Berlin, New York and Sydney
     
    First published in Great Britain in 2002 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
    50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP
     
    This electronic edition published in August 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
     
    Introduction copyright © Neil Gaiman 2012
    Copyright in the novel © Neil Gaiman 2002
    Illustrations copyright © Chris Riddell 2012
     
    The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted
     
    All rights reserved
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    publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication
    may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages
     
    A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
     
    ISBN 9781408832110
     
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