SOLVED. Fantasy with a girl locked in a closet who travels to another land. [s]

[Andi]

This is definitely not a Narnia or Oz book. I think the cover was of a girl standing at a table that had a stack of books and a candle on it, and she was holding a baby alligator or crocodile. It's not the book Coraline but I think that might have been the girl's name, and she lives somewhere in England I think in the 1800s possibly. She attends a funeral (I think it's her mother's, since her father remarries, but it also might have been her father after he marries her stepmother?). Her stepmother (could also have been an aunt or some sort of nanny) is very mean to her and ends up locking her in a closet, but she ends up traveling to some sort of fairy world. I think she attends a wedding there, but she only spends a day in that land before returning to her own, where there's a police officer or someone who has broken into the closet. She steps out and everyone (including the stepmother) is super surprised because apparently she's been locked in the closet for a year (similar to Narnia, time in the worlds is apparently different). In the real world she has a baby pet crocodile/alligator, but I don't remember any other details. I think she travels back to the fantasy world a few times but I don't remember entirely, if anyone has any ideas to what that could have been please let me know! (I've literally been searching for this book for years, I think it was a library book I borrowed in middle school or something)

[Kris]

I, Coriander by Sally Gardner seems to match your description.

One Goodreads reviewer says, "Beginning during the English Civil War of the 1640s Coriander is the child of a rich silk merchant and mother who is kindly 'cunning woman' and healer... Hester Arise locks in her in a closet...but she is then transported to a magical fairy world..." | "...an alligator most rare..."

Google search -- site:www.goodreads.com "fantasy" locked closet travels another world stepmother

[Michele]

Jessica, when did you read this? Do you remember if it was a new book at the time, or an older one? Would you call it a kids' book or an adult one? Do you happen to recall roughly how long it was (short, medium, doorstop)?

[Andi]

Kris was right, it was "I, Coriander", thank you!

[Kris]

Great! Glad we could help, Jessica.