By N.D. Wilson
Twelve-year-old Henry York wakes up one night to find bits
of plaster in his hair. Two knobs have broken through the wall above his bed
and one of them is slowly turning…Henry scrapes the plaster off the wall and
discovers cupboards of all different sizes and shapes. Through one he can hear
the sound of falling rain. Through another he sees a glowing room—with a man
pacing back and forth! Henry soon understands that these are not just
cupboards, but portals to other worlds.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this book. I
was expecting something so juvenile that I would be bored and was preparing
myself for something cutesy and not interesting. It does have a deliberate sort
of tone that makes some people say it is a slow read, but in my opinion it is a
ponderous and thoughtful tone that makes it a comfortable and enjoyable read.
Henry is like many 12-year-old protagonists, a boy who has led a relatively
sheltered life up until he has to go live with his aunt and uncle and cousins.
He is relegated to the attic, and finds to his surprise one night, plaster in
his hair and a doorknob in the wall. Henry proceeds to carve away the plaster
in the attic, revealing not one door, but 99 doors that all seem to lead to
different places. Places that don’t seem like earth. With the help of his
cousin Henrietta (yeah, that bugged me) they begin to discover the rules of the
cupboards and unravel the mystery of their family. This was, as I stated, a
surprising read and I was liking where the book ended and was promising to go
in the next 2 books of the trilogy. Henry is a likeable everyman character, and
this series is one I’d recommend to boys especially and those who enjoy fantasy
and magic.
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