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61st out of 416 books
—
518 voters
100 Cupboards (100 Cupboards #1)
by
N.D. Wilson (Goodreads Author)
Twelve-year-old Henry York is going to sleep one night when he hears a bump on the attic wall above his head. It's an unfamiliar house—Henry is staying with his aunt, uncle, and three cousins—so he tries to ignore it. But the next night he wakes up with bits of plaster in his hair. Two knobs have broken through the wall, and one of them is slowly turning...
Henry scrapes t...more
Henry scrapes t...more
Hardcover, 289 pages
Published
December 26th 2007
by Random House Books for Young Readers
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WOW! Very interesting fantasy tale. I wonder why I hadn't ever heard of it? Henry is a guest in his Aunt and Uncle's home. He finds 99 cupboards covered up with plaster in the attic where he sleeps. Each leads to a different land/time--but too small to get through. Where is the other cupboard, you wonder? Well, I can't tell you that! You'll just have to read it yourself. Quite an interesting story. It reads almost like a Harry Potter. And, if you get your hands on the book, look at the back of t...more
5 likes · like · see review
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Mmm. Delicious. A good fantasy with enough original elements to keep it interesting. "Leepike Ridge" is better, no question, but I dare say this book stands apart from the normal fantasy-laden pack. See for yourself...
4 likes · like · see review
I was intrigued by the cover right away. And as I read, I kept thinking, wow, for once, the book and the cover are really perfectly matched: in its mysterious, dark, and slightly creepy tone; in its attention to details; in its sense of originality. I appreciate quite a bit of this title. Really enjoyed how Wilson handles the relationships between Henry and Frank and between Henry and Henrietta. I am glad that Frank's and Dotty's seeming (and tremendously convenient) absentmindedness can be some...more
3 likes · like · see review
Let me make one thing clear--the only reason I'm deducting the 5th star is because this book does not stand on it's own. It's very clearly the start of a series and I'm greatly annoyed that now I have to wait for the next installment. That being said, the scene with the chainsaw in the carpet is almost worth adding the 5th star back...
This is a creepy little children's fantasy. Give to fans of Charlie Bone, Coraline, Gregor the Overlander, the Narnia books, Chrestomanci, and yes that HP fellow....more
This is a creepy little children's fantasy. Give to fans of Charlie Bone, Coraline, Gregor the Overlander, the Narnia books, Chrestomanci, and yes that HP fellow....more
Kover yang menawan serta rekomendasi banyak pihak yang terjamin kredibilitasnya membuat saya tak ragu untuk meminta hadiah buku ini dari Sista Ine sebagai hadiah ulang tahun. Thx Sis..., buku merupakan hadiah yang paling menyenangkan bagaimana pun isinya.
Ide ceritanya cukup lumayanlah, walau tidak bisa dimungkiri mirip dengan beberapa cerita yang menggunakan pintu sebagai portal untuk berada di tempat lain. Atau jika ingin lebih spesifik, mirip pintu ajaib ala Doraemon. Guna memudahkan memahami...more
Ide ceritanya cukup lumayanlah, walau tidak bisa dimungkiri mirip dengan beberapa cerita yang menggunakan pintu sebagai portal untuk berada di tempat lain. Atau jika ingin lebih spesifik, mirip pintu ajaib ala Doraemon. Guna memudahkan memahami...more
1 like · like · see review
Wow! I really loved this book. Deliciously creepy elements blend with terrific characterization, poetic prose and exciting plot. Will update more in a bit!
{Edit}Now to add a bit more. I like how the author has taken classic fantasy tropes, "the lost Special One" "the Hidden World" "the Wise Fool" and blended them in new ways. I particularly like how Henry finds the world away from the smothering overprotective one his parents have created for him just as magical as the actual magical worlds he...more
{Edit}Now to add a bit more. I like how the author has taken classic fantasy tropes, "the lost Special One" "the Hidden World" "the Wise Fool" and blended them in new ways. I particularly like how Henry finds the world away from the smothering overprotective one his parents have created for him just as magical as the actual magical worlds he...more
Nonbiased reviews under such circumstances are hard to come by. Great book.
Scrub the bones. Great line, and one of the most memorable. This book felt like what C.S. Lewis would have been if he wasn't British, didn't drink tea and crumpets every day and enjoyed college basketball.
Once I looked past the unappealing, unengaging title and the at-first-glance bland, nondescript cover, I started reading to discover a surprisingly good story. At first I was impressed with Wilson's nice way with words, well-built characters, and lived-in descriptions of small-town Kansas. The tale gradually revealed itself to be about powerful magic, hidden away but insistent in its implications to those involved. I hope he writes sequels, because he has only begun to scratch the surface of the...more
1 like · like · see review
100 Cupboards is like the Brambly Hedge book The Secret Staircase, only creepier and for older kids. The atmosphere is wonderful - there's a great sense that the author knows about everything behind each cupboard, even if it doesn't come into the story (and it looks like the first in a series, so he'd better) - this creates a sense that the world is a bigger, more wonderful and frightening place than you thought.
All of which fits perfectly into the character development of Henry. He's led a she...more
All of which fits perfectly into the character development of Henry. He's led a she...more
Reviewed by Allison Fraclose for TeensReadToo.com
Twelve-year-old Henry York's world-traveling parents have been kidnapped, so he has moved in with his aunt, uncle, and three cousins at their old farm home in Henry, Kansas. Even though he's stuck in a tiny converted closet up in the attic, Henry almost doesn't mind living with his relatives. In fact, he's kind of excited about it, because for the first time in his life, he can play baseball without a helmet, sit in the back of a truck, and own a...more
Twelve-year-old Henry York's world-traveling parents have been kidnapped, so he has moved in with his aunt, uncle, and three cousins at their old farm home in Henry, Kansas. Even though he's stuck in a tiny converted closet up in the attic, Henry almost doesn't mind living with his relatives. In fact, he's kind of excited about it, because for the first time in his life, he can play baseball without a helmet, sit in the back of a truck, and own a...more
Mar 11, 2008
Beth
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Michelle Keyes, the 9 - 12 year old crowd
Shelves:
children-s-fiction
Henry moves in temporarily with his Aunt and Uncle in Henry, Kansas until his kidnapped parents who were bicicling across South America can be found. He becomes acquainted with his three cousins and discovers that while he hopes his parents are comfortable, he'd rather they not be found because he has so much more freedom in Kansas and he's going to have the chance to play baseball.
Things get interesting when he discovers that the plaster on the attic bedroom wall is covering 99 cupboards that e...more
Things get interesting when he discovers that the plaster on the attic bedroom wall is covering 99 cupboards that e...more
1 like · like · see review
For a modern children's fantasy, in all its derivative glory, I really enjoyed this. It's not blazing any new ground, and it uses more than a few fantasy cliches (Henry's an orphan! taken in by his aunt and uncle! And his makeshift attic bedroom holds SECRETS! A locked door downstairs! An old man Henry can't remember! Cupboards that go to OTHER WORLDS!) but it still manages to feel fresh and fun. It helps that we're more than halfway through the book before anyone goes through any of the cupboar...more
pulled in by the cover and the premise. boy discovers 100 cupboards buried behind the plaster in his bedroom wall. each door is different and all but a very few are locked. what are they for? where do they lead? why were they behind plaster? i won't tell you the answers to any of these, but i will say that the book is well-written with very interesting characters. i love the language this author uses. at one point, he describes the color of an old pickup truck as brown, like the bottom of a pond...more
Anyone who can base a philosophy of life on tumbleweeds ranks pretty high in my estimation. (I grew up in Eastern CO, which is just as much a place of tumbleweeds as Henry, KS!!)
This book definitely should be made into a movie. What a pleasurable read. I enjoyed every minute of it and didn't want it to end. The author left it open for a sequel, so I hope he makes one.
A boy finds a wall of cupboards plastered up in his attic bedroom. The all seem to open up to other worlds, but they're too small to crawl through. Eventually, he's able to find a way to go to the other worlds some other way than through his dreams. Quite an adventure unfolds as he learns of his family's pa...more
A boy finds a wall of cupboards plastered up in his attic bedroom. The all seem to open up to other worlds, but they're too small to crawl through. Eventually, he's able to find a way to go to the other worlds some other way than through his dreams. Quite an adventure unfolds as he learns of his family's pa...more
This is a quirky fantasy. In an old farmhouse, a family has discovered a way to travel between multiple worlds/universes via a set of cupboards - but because of the dangers, they have been covered up and forgotten. When young Henry comes to stay, he discovers the cupboards and hesitantly begins to explore. The characters - laconic, eccentric, cranky - are intriguingly different from those in many children's books. Many of the mysteries of these worlds are tantalizingly hinted at but not fully ex...more
I liked this. I want to say that first off least my issues be construed as revulsion. I read this book with the idea of presented it to a children's book club that I run at work. If I were reading for myself I probably would have relaxed into the story more and not be questioning everything. I don't tend to read Juvie Fantasy too deeply when reading for my own personal pleasure, but I need to talk about this among a group.
First the tone seems to shift from the overly descriptive literary tone...more
First the tone seems to shift from the overly descriptive literary tone...more
2 likes · like · see review
The book starts off a tad clunkily, with stilted and overly-simplistic (even for MG/children's books) writing, and the story meanders slowly along--in fact, for the first chunk of the book, the story is far more slice-of-life about Henry adjusting to his new home and learning the quirks of his new family.
This slow pace continued even after Henry's discovery of the mysterious cupboards, meaning it was less than completely engaging--in large part because I had no idea where the story was going and...more
This slow pace continued even after Henry's discovery of the mysterious cupboards, meaning it was less than completely engaging--in large part because I had no idea where the story was going and...more
I'm quite conflicted about this book. On the one hand, the premise is fantastic-- a wall full of doorways into other worlds-- some benign, some not so much. But the names of the female characters were confusing-- they're all allusions to famous females (incl Dorothy from Kansas!)-- but i also kept forgetting how old the little girls were supposed to be, because they speak and act like different ages all the time. The town's name is Henry, and the two main kids are named Henry and Henrietta? Huh?...more
MontanaLibrary2Go
I stumbled across this while looking to see what was available from the library's ebook system, and am glad I did, as I'd not have ever heard of the series otherwise. It's quite well-written, with an interesting premise and quirky yet relatable characters. I believe Amazon lists this as being for grades 5-8, I found that a bit surprising as it really is quite suspenseful in a few places, but it's possible that reading this when I'm physically fragile made me jumpier than usual....more
I stumbled across this while looking to see what was available from the library's ebook system, and am glad I did, as I'd not have ever heard of the series otherwise. It's quite well-written, with an interesting premise and quirky yet relatable characters. I believe Amazon lists this as being for grades 5-8, I found that a bit surprising as it really is quite suspenseful in a few places, but it's possible that reading this when I'm physically fragile made me jumpier than usual....more
I found this book in a second hand book shop and I just picked it up and bought it because of its title and cover. I was intrigued at first sight. The idea of a different world beyond each cupboard door, so simple and probably done before, but how could I resist?
The story is so interesting and gripping and the characters are extremely well written. I love each character to bits because Wilson makes them so real and rounded in my mind by the description he uses and by the things they all say. I c...more
The story is so interesting and gripping and the characters are extremely well written. I love each character to bits because Wilson makes them so real and rounded in my mind by the description he uses and by the things they all say. I c...more
I enjoyed 100 Cupboards for the most part. The fantastical aspects, mainly the cupboards, were very intriguing. They reminded me a bit of the mini-series The Lost Room. It was their surface mundanity but with a fantastical aspect underneath that charmed me. I mean one of the first cupboards the children open is to a mailbox. But it is a mailbox not on Earth.
The story introduces a lot of different elements that aren't quite explained, but this is clearly the first in a series, so that's to be ex...more
The story introduces a lot of different elements that aren't quite explained, but this is clearly the first in a series, so that's to be ex...more
I read this after my twelve-year old raved about it. Okay. It was just as good as she said.
I found amazing similarities between this book and L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time, too many to mention. However, despite the similarities, I had a very different reaction. With L'Engle I always felt safe and never spooked or creepy. With this book, I felt a creepiness and uneasiness driven from the unknown. Both authors use suspense to their advantage, but I felt very different.
I enjoyed this book for its simp...more
I found amazing similarities between this book and L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time, too many to mention. However, despite the similarities, I had a very different reaction. With L'Engle I always felt safe and never spooked or creepy. With this book, I felt a creepiness and uneasiness driven from the unknown. Both authors use suspense to their advantage, but I felt very different.
I enjoyed this book for its simp...more
Travel writers Phil and Ursula York of Boston, MA, the parents of timid twelve-year-old Henry, have been kidnapped while riding bicycles in Colombia, so Henry goes to Henry, KS, to live with his uncle and aunt, Frank and Dorothy (Dotty) Willis and his three cousins, Henrietta, Anastasia, and Penelope. He is given a bedroom in the attic and one night, after hearing some thumping and scratching, discovers that there are 100 cupboard doors under the plaster, which he proceeds to remove. Then he and...more
The synopsis on the back cover caught my intention from the very beginning. Since there were a lot of good reviews about it, i was itching to read this book. This book actually written for children, so it is very easy to understand the story.
The story is very nice and contented. The relationship of Henry, the main character in this book, with the cupboards that connected to different worlds somehow reminds me of The Chronicles of Narnia by Lewis.
From the characterization, i think Wilson has cre...more
The story is very nice and contented. The relationship of Henry, the main character in this book, with the cupboards that connected to different worlds somehow reminds me of The Chronicles of Narnia by Lewis.
From the characterization, i think Wilson has cre...more
Henry York has lived a sheltered childhood with no baseball, no T.V. and no soda. He longs for adventure, but when he goes to live with his Aunt Dotty and Uncle Frank, he finds himself with more adventure than he can handle. Henry soon discovers a wall of mysterious cupboards hidden behind the plaster in his attic room. When he removes the plaster and opens some of the unlocked cupboard, strange things begin to happen. Henry and his cousin learn that the cupboards lead to different lands and pla...more
I saw "100 Cupboards" in the comments section of a "100 Best Kids' Books" list, and as it was unfamiliar to me, checked it out from the library.
It has a lot of things going for it. First and foremost: good, solid writing. Yes, it is written at a 6th grade (or even lower) level. Short sentences, relatively small words. Like most books in this category, it gets choppy at times. But for all that, there is frequent good use of metaphor - it feels almost literary every once in a while. Secondly, the...more
It has a lot of things going for it. First and foremost: good, solid writing. Yes, it is written at a 6th grade (or even lower) level. Short sentences, relatively small words. Like most books in this category, it gets choppy at times. But for all that, there is frequent good use of metaphor - it feels almost literary every once in a while. Secondly, the...more
Twelve year old Henry York was a very sheltered child. His parents always feared the worst. He rode in a car seat, had to wear a helmet when he attended P.E classes, and had never even attempted to play baseball. But then, when he is sent to live with his aunt and uncle all the way out in Kansas, his life takes a dramatic turn. First, Aunt Dotty and Uncle Frank don't have the same views on raising children as his parents did. Uncle Frank even gives him a knife for his very own. And then, one nig...more
While reading Book One: 100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson- I found myself intrigued and scared! Henry is a twelve year old boy visiting his aunt, uncle, and cousins (all girls). His visit seems a bit mysterious and when he wakes up with plaster in his hair and knobs turning on his wall- the action really starts! Henry works hard to scrape off the rest of the plaster and reveals 100 cupboards of various shapes and sizes. He soon realizes he can hear and see through some of them. What is behind each of...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodreads Librari...: Incorrect number of pages reported | 6 | 26 | Jun 08, 2013 01:03pm | |
| 100 Cupboards- Did You Like It? | 5 | 15 | Dec 13, 2012 06:52am | |
| Favorites: 100 Cupboards Series | 1 | 5 | Aug 13, 2012 10:35am | |
| Hey everybody I'm newcomer to this board. | 2 | 18 | Oct 27, 2009 12:22am | |
| You have a good site randomthinkables.blogspot.com all very tastefully done! | 1 | 8 | Oct 13, 2009 05:14am |
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“Woman and children behind the lines!' he yelled, and all the girls jumped. Henry froze with his mouth open. 'Bang the drum slowly and ask not for whom the bell's ringing, for the answer's unfriendly!' He threw a fist in the air. 'Two years have my black ships sat before Troy, and today its gate shall open before the strength of my arm.' Dotty was laughing from the kitchen. Frank looked at his nephew. 'Henry, we play baseball tomorrow. Today we sack cities. Dots! Fetch me my tools! Down with the French! Once more into the breach, and fill the wall with our coward dead! Half a league! Half a league! Hey, batter, batter!'
Frank brought his fist down onto the table, spilling Anastasia's milk, and then he struck a pose with both arms above his head and his chin on his chest. The girls cheered and applauded. Aunt Dotty stepped back into the dining room carrying a red metal toolbox.”
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Frank brought his fist down onto the table, spilling Anastasia's milk, and then he struck a pose with both arms above his head and his chin on his chest. The girls cheered and applauded. Aunt Dotty stepped back into the dining room carrying a red metal toolbox.”
“There is a bus station in Henry, but it isn't on Main Street. It's one block north - the town fathers hadn't wanted all the additional traffic. The station lost one-third of its roof to a tornado fifteen years ago. In the same summer, a bottle rocket brought the gift of fire to its restrooms. The damage has never been repaired, but the town council makes sure that the building is painted fresh every other year, and always the color of a swimming pool. There is never graffiti. Vandals would have to drive more than twenty miles to buy the spray paint.
Every once in a long while, a bus creeps into town and eases to a stop beside the mostly roofed, bright aqua station with the charred bathrooms. Henry is always glad to see a bus. Such treats are rare.”
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3 people liked it
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Every once in a long while, a bus creeps into town and eases to a stop beside the mostly roofed, bright aqua station with the charred bathrooms. Henry is always glad to see a bus. Such treats are rare.”
