SOLVED. YA Science Fiction. Boy can travel into two dimensional (2D) world making himself thin, can get into inaccessible rooms using his power. Saves someone or something. Read 1988-1989. [s]

[Alicia]

Hello. Read this book in middle school 1988 or 1989. Something about boy who somehow becomes able to travel into the second dimension making himself thin. Can change back. Goes back and forth between three dimensional world and two dimensional world. Boy may have been middle
School age.

[Capn]

Surely not Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions? :) Maybe Flatterland: Like Flatland Only More So?

It's not a book but The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds has this... :) (I was trying to use it to bring up a TV Tropes list for the 3D to 2D to 3D thing, but I was unsuccessful).

Do you remember if it was a funny book? Something like Daniel Pinkwater or Scott Corbett might write?

Anything about the cover or format you can recall? A name or villain, maybe?

[Alicia]

It wasn’t a funny book. Kind of like the boy used his powers to save someone or something.

[Alicia]

The boy could use it to get into rooms he wouldn’t normally have been able to get into.

[Sem]

Alicia wrote: "The boy could use it to get into rooms he wouldn’t normally have been able to get into."

That sounds a lot like the Flat Stanley series by Jeff Brown but Stanley isn't 2D, just squashed flat.

[Alicia]

Okay I’ll check that out!! Thank you!!

[Alicia]

Nope tried flat Stanley. That want it, it was an older boy in the book.

[Capn]

I was reminded by my friend that there's a scene in A Wrinkle in Time that fits this. But it's not the whole book, and it might be just Charles Wallace (I forget it now. There's definitely a scene with Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which on a 2 dimensional planet early on).
Can search by keyword, etc. from "preview" here without an account: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL41495...

[Sem]

Alicia wrote: "Nope tried flat Stanley. That want it, it was an older boy in the book."

I didn't think so from what you said but it was worth a try.

[Michele]

Capn is correct, in A Wrinkle in Time the three children are taken to a two-dimensional planet, however they're only there for a few seconds because they're unable to survive there, so I doubt this the OP's book.

[Kris]

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

[Kris]

Does anything in this discussion about The Boy Who Reversed Himself by William Sleator jog any memories?

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Alicia]

That seems kind of familiar. I’ll check it out!

[Kris]

Google Books has a snippet preview of The Boy Who Reversed Himself by William Sleator:

https://books.google.com/books?id=d3d...
There are different cover images.

Quotes from the book:
- He began cutting a shape out of a piece of paper. "Now, what I'm going to show you is the difference between a flat, two-dimensional world and the three-dimensional world we ..."
- "... flat, like this piece of paper. The people who live there are flat too, like paper dolls. On the surface of the paper they can go up and down and from side to side. But they can't come up off the paper or go down underneath it."
- Disoriented as I was, it must be infinitely worse for him. "Do you remember what I told you back in my room, about the difference between a flat, two-dimensional world, and our three-dimensional world? And what our world would ..."

[Alicia]

Kris~. That book was the one!!! I ordered and read it!!! Thank you so much!! It was “The Boy Who Reversed Himself” by William Sleator!! It was so fun to re-read this book from my childhood and now I can share it!!! I cannot thank you and everyone who helped enough!!! ☺️

[Kris]

Great! Glad you found your book, Alicia. That's a popular one - it's been requested and found eight times in our group.

[Michele]

We should have some kind of chart showing the most frequently requested/solved titles lol