SOLVED. Childrens Fantasy. Boy wakes & has sort of 'dream adventure' ('am I awake?'). Finds castle, needs to find a key. Creature (goblin/ dwarf/ elf?) lives in forest & makes him Pancakes with Blueberries, has garden. England. Read around 2004-2008. [s]

[Christina]

Right, looking for a paperback book i read around 2004-2008 as a child.
I think the boy wakes up and had a sortof 'dream adventure'

I think he finds a castle and meets someone who wants to escape (i think he either finds his dad or a Princess?) and he has to do some random stuff to get a key and its quite a confusing world for him, not very logical.

At first i think the people in the castle are nice to him but theyre sortof tricking him to think hes safe but they want to trap him there i think.

I'm having a hard time searching for it because the only detail i really remember clearly is that the boy meets some creature in the forest, some kind of friendly goblin/dwarf/elf whatever who i think lives in a tree and has a little garden. Anyway the creature makes him pancakes with blueberries snd blueberry jam and i think this happens a few times.
At some point i think the kid feels sick becayse the blueberries remind him of some blue eyes he saw in the castle i think and he panics a bit.. I'm not sure if the creature actually turns out to be bad in the end.

I'm sorry this is a bit confusing but it was such a long time ago. I think he was wearing pajamas and he escapes back to bed in the end.

[Tab]

Anything about the cover?
Part of a series?
Chapter book or picture book?
Time period/location story takes place?

What country were you in when you read this book? Language?

[Christina]

Don't remember anything about the cover and i dont think there were pictures.. Perhaps black wnd white small ones like in Alice.

I was in england, it was an English book i believe and I'm fairly sure it was set here.

I wish i could remember more but its just that quite vague memory about the blueberry pancakes!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Christina, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Christina]

No i'm still looking. I would really like to read this one again, i wish i could remember more detail!

[Kris]

A guess - The Land of Long Ago by Elsa Beskow? There are different cover images.
(Google search - site:www.goodreads.com childrens fantasy blueberry castle "a key")

Christina, is this a picture book (about 32-48 pages) or a chapter book with mostly words (and some illustrations)?

[Christina]

I don't remember i feel like there were illustrations as i remember a boy in his pajamas i think after he gets home he wonders if it was real or a dream. I think he has to find a key to leave. I keep thinking maybe it was a tv movie type thing and I'm just imaging that i read it. It was so long ago!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Still looking now?

[Christina]

Sadly yes!

[Kris]

So this is a children's chapter book (not a picture book)? About how long?

I copied some book details to the topic header. Feel free to edit it.

[Christina]

I believe a chapter book but it could have had some illustrations, no idea about the length. I can barely remember it at all i just have this vivid memory of the blueberry pancakes bit to be honest.

[Becca]

The Frog Castle by Jostein Gaarder?

At that I gazed down at my pale blue pyjamas, which were covered with pictures of cars and motorbikes. I hadn’t realised they were all I was wearing, and I felt like creeping away to hide.

Now I noticed that he was a teeny bit melancholy too, though his eyes were as blue as two huge blueberries.

‘What shall we do first?’ asked Umpin the boggart. ‘Shall we catch newts first and then have pancakes and strawberry jam, or eat pancakes and strawberry jam first and then catch tadpoles?'

'Be careful now, he said, ‘on one occasion my great-grandmother was so surprised at hearing some strange words that her eyes popped out. For years and years they rolled about all over the forest. That’s why there are so many blueberries here, and why boggarts don’t have pancakes with blueberry jam.

'For if you lose the key to your own family in a dream castle, the people who live in that dream castle will move into your real house. And those who live in the real house will take up residence in the dream castle.'

Google Books preview: https://www.google.co.uk/books/editio...

[Christina]

OMG Becca yes, looks shorter than i remember but i guess that's what childhood does! Got to find a copy but the preview and that paragraph pretty much confirms it for me. Thank you so much you are an absolute star, you've made my day :D

No idea how to mark this resolved though (I'm on mobile)

[Becca]

You're welcome, glad I could help!

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Christina.

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