Henry is being sent to Kansas ... Henry, KS to be exact. His parents have been kidnapped on one of their many vacation/biking assignments, and he has a healthy level of dissonance about the situation. There's nothing he can do about it, right? If they are found and rescued, then good. On the other hand, he's not exactly upset about the chance to live like a normal kid (read: not wearing a helmet in weird situations, like to play catch).
When he arrives at his Aunt Doty and Uncle Frank's place, he's greeted by his three cousins: Penelope, Henrietta, and Anastasia. He can hardly believe his luck. On his first day in town, Uncle Frank buys him a baseball glove AND a pocket knife! And it gets even better; there are secrets about this house. Behind his bed in the attic, Henry notices cracked plaster ... and two knobs sticking out. What could they be? Slowly but surely, with his new pocket knife, he begins to uncover something behind the plaster in his room. All night he works, picking away at the small boxes and odd shaped holes in the wall. But they aren't holes exactly, they're more like ... cupboards!
When cousin Henrietta finds out what he's up to, she wants in on the action. They find a few of the cupboards will open! The tricky part is that they seem to open into a different place than just further into the wall. The air smells differently, the light changes, through one they even see a man walking! Then there is the black cupboard, which Henry knows instinctively is bad ... but Henrietta's curiosity overcomes her. When they finally pry it open, she wants to explore. Henry barely steps out of the room, but when he returns, she is passed out with her arm stuck inside the black cupboard! With some quick thinking, Henry manages to rescue her ... but not completely without harm.
There is more than meets the eye to this whole situation. Finding Grandpa's journal, they discover that these cupboards are links to other worlds! Some of them may be better than others ... but there's no telling what could happen next!
"Henry had continued chipping plaster and uncovering doors until he could count thirty-five in all, and he had no doubt there were more. Most of them were wood, but of all different sizes, grains, and colors. The shapes varied as well as the designs. Some were plain, and some had surfaces so intricately carved that getting the plaster out of all the curves and crannies had been impossible. Some had knobs, some small handles, some slides or things Henry had never seen. There was one with nothing at all. He had pushed and pulled and lightly thumped on every single one, but without effect," (Wilson pg. 47, 2007).
If you liked this, check out:
Dandelion Fire by N.D. Wilson 100 Cupboards, Book 2
Wilson, N. D. (2007). 100 cupboards. New York: Random House.
ahhhh bllaaa
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