100 Cupboards
100 Cupboards is a fantasy novel trilogy by N.D. Wilson. The three books in the trilogy are 100 Cupboards, Dandelion Fire, and The Chestnut King.
Henry York's parents went biking through Colombia. Bad idea: They get taken hostage by a rebel group. In order to keep him sane, his nanny sends him off to be with his aunt, uncle, and cousins for a while. They live in a tiny town in Kansas called Henry, and they also have a daughter named Henrietta. (Don't worry, it's not too confusing.) Henry has never been so far from home before. He's never spent so much time outside before, or ridden in the back of a pickup truck, or played baseball. In fact, while he was with his parents, he never got to do much on his own at all.
While sleeping up in his cousins' attic, though, he hears a strange tapping on the walls. The plaster begins to chip away--and behind it, Henry and his cousins find 99 tiny doors. Each one leads to a different place. Each one leads to a different time. And it's only with the help of his grandfather's journal that they can be navigated... not-quite safely.
Henry considers keeping them a secret, but his aunt Dotty and Uncle Frank already know--Frank, all too well. And Henry may have accidentally released an ancient witch hidden behind one of the doors. Now he, his family, and even a few friends set off on a world-hopping adventure not quite of their own volition.
- All There in the Manual: At the beginning if each book, there is a reproduction of Henry and Henrietta's grandfather's journal, showing where all those cupboards go.
- Batter Up: Zeke, being a baseball player, puts his bat to the test.
- Baseball Episode: Henry spends one chapter playing baseball.
- Cool Gate: All the cupboards. Especially the 100th, which allows one to actually travel between the doors. Except "Cleave," but that's a given.
- Cool Pet: The Raggant is one
- Dark Is Evil:
- Eye Scream: The author seems to have a thing about this. Nimiane's true eyes are just swollen, red sores, and, in the second book, Henry tries to scratch his own eyes out because he believes he's grown a second pair of eyelids.
- The Fair Folk
- Name's the Same: Main character: Henry. Main setting (until about the midpoint of Dandelion Fire), also Henry.
- One Steve Limit: There's both Uncle Frank (Francis) and the faerie Frank (Franklin). As well as Anastasia (Henry's cousin) and Anastasia (Henry's grandmother), though that's a case of the former definitely being named after the latter. To say nothing of Henry and Henrietta.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Mordecai, Henry's father
- Steampunk: Byzanthamum.
- Wonder Child: Henry himself was one.