What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
This topic is about
The Boy Who Reversed Himself
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. child is a caretaker of a world in basement [s]
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My brother told me about a story like that once. I'll see if he can remember it.
Okay, here's what my brother came up with:"There was a book written with this same philosophical concept called Flatworld. The protagonist was A. Square, in a 2D world, shown the wonders of Spaceworld by a nameless sphere.
There being no kids involved in this story, I'm doubtful it's the same story."
Then 15 min. later he wrote:
"I just found out that somebody wrote a "sequel" to Flatland (not Flatworld, sorry) a little more than a hundred years later called Flatterland. Its protagonist is Vikki Line, a teenager who finds her Square ancestor's writing about Spaceworld.
But it's a 2d female kid protagonist, not a 3d male kid protagonist, so it still doesn't fit."
That's all I could come up with.*shrug*
I'm not sure (the blurb isn't really specific) but what about Sphereland, yet another sequel to Flatland?
Thank you for all the research! Flatland is the one that my friends suggested to me a while ago, but I read through it and it didn't seem familiar at all. The description of Flatterland sounds promising, except it's much too new!I'm starting to think I might have read Flatland or Sphereland as a kid and ended up daydreaming a story about these concepts instead of paying attention to what the book was actually about. I had an almost consuming imaginary life as a kid =)
Flatterland is a book by an English mathematician and examines how we percieve the shape of the universe. As far as I know flatland by Edwin Abbot is also about mathematics
This might be the same book I'm looking for! I read this sometime between 1989 - 1991 and it was in the YA section of my library. There is a girl who lives with her older aunt, uncle or grandparent in an apartment building. The city is trying to buy the building to build a freeway or something, but they are a hard sell to protect that building. The girl is revealed a family secret that they are the guardians of a portal to a new dimension and she discovers the dimension with a neighbor boy she isn't friends with, but in the dimensions, they eventually marry and having rectangle babies. Back in the present day, she has a crush on some boy who is distant and dreamy, not at all like the awkward neighbor. I think the dimensions may be in a closet or under a stair case. I remember something about 2-d, and at some point, octogans. Is this what you remember??
YES!!!! That's it!!! I was starting to think I was going crazy. All of that sounds very very very familiar.
I read the reviews for Flatterland, but I'm not convinced that's the book we're looking for. Okay, so we can confirm we ARE NOT crazy, but we still have to find the title!
This really reminds me of The Boy Who Reversed Himself by William Sleator. But they don't find the 2d world until the end (I think in the basement) and first the girl gets trapped in the 4d world. The boy isn't handsome and the girl first gets a clue when his pimples or something are on the wrong side. The family secret is his and at the end of the books, the (now married) couple won't sell. I don't remember if they had rectangle babies but it was first printed in '86.I know that is a little off of what ya'll are mentioning but I know I mess up details after so long so I thought I'd give it a shot.
edit: The goodreads description is tiny. Here is an amazon one:
Once again, Sleator treats us to the best that YA science fiction can offer: averageand sometimes not-so-averageteenagers facing the physical and mathematical absurdities of our universe. Laura's determination to get into medical school has cast her as a brain and, thus, untouchable. She has a crush on Pete, the football captainand weird things are happening on a daily basis, ever since Omar, the creepy boy next door, moved in. Laura makes Omar confess his secrets: he's training to become the guardian of the Second Dimension, while he's exploring the Fifth. Laura invites Pete on a journey to the Fifth Dimensionbut her game becomes a nightmare when she and Pete are captured, and the whole existence of the world depends on Omar's ability to rescue them. After the seriousness of Singularity, Sleator has returned to some of the humor of Interstellar Pig. A welcome offering from a versatile writer.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
I think you did it, Lasairfiona! That description sounds like the book. I went and read the excerpt on Amazon and boy, was it bad. However, it was just the kind of book I would have read, so I bet that's it! I'll go pick it up from the library the next time I'm there.Thanks!
No problem. The only reason I recognized it is that I forgot the title of the book a long time ago and someone told me what it was. I had only messed up the title. I still keep thinking it is "The Boy who turned himself inside out". :)
Check out the "Secret of Droon " estate if you're looking for something similar. "Estate" means "series" in the book-collecting/book-loving world.47- or 48-piece estate, also having the portal to another world in the basement, but more magical/wizardy.
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A recent post reminded me of a book I read as a kid and haven't been able to find since.
I remember the main character being a kid who discovers a portal to another world in his basement, except that world is two-dimensional. It turns out that each world has a portal up to the next dimension as well as down one, but most people don't know about them. I don't remember if he was able to go to the 2-D world or just look through and talk with some of the inhabitants. He kinda becomes the caretaker of that world, and I think there might have been some conflict where he had to "save" that world or something.
I read this as a kid, probably in the early 80s. It was definitely a kid's book. Someone once suggested a non-kid's book from the early 20th century, but that wasn't it.
Help?