What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
This topic is about
The Ancient Machine
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. Children's/ Middle Grade Fantasy. Boy falls through puddle into magical world, ends up having to save a kingdom. Read 2005-2009 in Australia.
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by Suzanne Collins? Male protagonist falls through into the fantastical world via a pipe. Female character helps him and has these purple eyes, if I recall correctly, but I haven't read this series since I was a kid. There's also lots of animals in this series with human-like roles/characteristics as you describe.
I just found that series myself and also wondered if that was it! I've had a look though and sadly it wasn't :( Thank you!
No, unfortunately not. I think the puddle was fairly minor, and never really mentioned after the start of the book. Almost all of it took place in the fantasy world. Adding extra details while I'm replying - there was some sort of black panther-like creature terrorising the castle at night, which either the male or female protag snuck out to see/stop/possibly communicate with.
The Magician's Daughter by Justyn Walker? The main character is a girl, but she and a male friend do fall through a puddle into a fantasy world, and the author is Australian, so I thought worth a guess.
I checked the Portal is in Water list - saw The Magician's Daughter there and glossed over it because neither the title nor cover were at all familiar. I've just had a second look thanks to Becca and checked the second book in the series - that one seems VERY familiar, in cover, title and plot! I wonder if I either only read the second book or only remember the second book for whatever reason. I think you might've cracked it - I'm going to see if I can track this down and read it to confirm, but it looks very promising. Thank you so much, Becca!
Glad to help - fingers crossed that's the one!
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The Ancient Machine (book 2 of the Georgie Tanner series) by Justyn Walker:- "Georgie Tanner lives in an orphanage. Her one and only friend, Thomas, manages to get trapped with her in a puddle that takes them both to the ‘fair land of Allegoria,’ a name which struck fear into my heart at first. There are centaurs and talking animals and walking trees and an unhappy dragon.
... The children invariably find they have been enrolled at the castle school which offers everything from Sword-Fighting to Dungeon-Keeping and, in the spirit of free and universal education for all, offers special courses for peasant children in useful arts such as Muck-raking.
... The Daredevils – a group of entertainers in The Ancient Machine – are so far and away the best characters that it’s a pity they didn’t get more play time and that they only appeared in the single book. Although each book does feature a special group of talking animals, the Daredevils are a combination of cultivated insouciance and slap-stick humour that actually is funny."
- https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Managed to read both of them and the book I was looking for was The Ancient Machine!I had never read the first in the series, which makes sense in hindsight - would've been way easier if I'd realised I was looking for a sequel.
Thanks so much, Becca!
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What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
The Ancient Machine (other topics)The Magician's Daughter (other topics)
Puddlejumpers (other topics)
Gregor the Overlander (other topics)
He fell through iirc an ordinary puddle on a street (chasing a newspaper?? someone was reading a newspaper??) and ended up in this classic fantasy land, living in a medieval-type castle. I think he was either mistaken for the crown prince there or had to work for the crown prince; there was another boy who was an antagonist, and a girl protagonist who helped him. There was some work to do with a pigsty, and at some stage the protag boy discovered possibly an evil wizard using a powerful hourglass to do... something to the kingdom. At some stage the boy and girl have to break back into the castle with the help of a troupe of travelling, talking, acrobat animals who can scale the walls. Someone also ends up swinging on a chandelier.
This was definitely a series, so some details may be from the later books. It's also definitely not Magician's Nephew, despite the puddles!