findthatbook | Entries tagged with cat: other worlds (discworld/narnia etc)

My local library had a series of books (possibly a trilogy) that I enjoyed when I was younger in the mid 80’s. I want to track them down to read to my children.

The library never had the first one but the basic plot outline is;
A boy does a weird monster dance to scare his younger sister which accidentally teleports them to a fantasy world. They are separated and the locals treat his sister as a powerful sorceress because of her torch.

I can’t remember the outline for the second book.

In the third book he does the dance but when he’s teleported he’s shrunk to the size of an insect and gains leaf armour made by ants. He eventually meets a wizard from an earlie book that resizes him but he’s a few inches smaller. Him and some adventurers from an earlier book go into a dungeon where they start getting “killed off” with venomous crossbow bolts and nerve gas.

One of the covers is of the boy doing the dance and the back cover summary always discusses the dance/movements in detail.

Any help would be much appreciated.

angelia

I read these 2 books about 8ish years ago, so I don't remember the titles but I remember the details and google isn't helping me at all.
Book #1: All I can remember about this book is that it about a girl and a unicorn, they travel through a few tapestries. Not a picture book.
Book #2: I remember a lot more about this book. It is about a boy and a few friends who are in a town that has a door that is guarded in town that is separated by a stream or river with eels that eat people and their faces change based on the person's face that they ate. I think the book had a small leopard or something next to the door. I remember the door took them to like a fantasy place and he found like his uncle in there that he thought was dead.

Any help at all is extremely grateful, I've thought about this so much for the past few years.

alanefraire

FOUND: 'The Accidental Hero' or 'Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation'

Boy am I glad I found this community.

I read this book ages ago, it was in my school library and I read the entire series. I remember loving it, and now I can't find it again.

I remember there was a kid who was in an orphanage, or a boys home, or something like that, and it was extremely strict. The group were going on a trip and he was hiding in the library (?) where he had hidden a bunch of comic books he was told to throw out. Some of them had pages ripped or damaged, so he made up his own endings to the stories. He was found by one of the caretakers (?), and forced to join the trip. I remember one of the kids teasing him and making him so mad that the lights in the bus blew out and he was forced to stay back and do chores, because everything was blamed on him (it was his fault always anyway).

He had to go down to the basement at some point and a robot from one of the comic books came out and attacked him, saying stuff about the robot prince or something? He ended up blowing up the robot (?) in the garden, and he hid the parts of the robot and didn't tell anyone until this random old dude came to pick him up from the orphanage. He was then taken to a secret island that can only be accessed at a certain time of the year, where he found all his favourite comics were real. Some guy had visited the island and turned the stories he heard into comics. When he arrived they checked him over for some sort of virus and he tested positive, but the old dude managed to convince security he was clean.

This was all in the first few chapters by the way. I'm really upset because I can remember so much of the book but I cannot, for the life of me, remember the title. It was one word.

In the following books he joined a training academy for the best of the best, found out the robot prince was living inside him and was tricked into meeting the robot princes father, under the assumption it was his father. He got taken to the mothership, where the robot prince took over his body. I remember a part where he related what was happening to something from the comics, where one of the main characters got taken over by the robot virus, but the rest of the comic had been torn up, so he had made up an ending for it. Then his friends tried to save him, but the robot had taken over and he had sort of merged or something with it and they tried to take over the world and one of their friends died or something?

I'm also pretty sure it was a trilogy. If anyone could help me, I would be forever grateful.

Alane
(Also, i don't know how to tag so if someone could help out with that, that'd be great!)

Current Mood: annoyed

fin3apple

I read this book I think around 2014 but definitely within the range of 2010 to 2015. I think this book was part of a series, but I only read the first one if that is the case. It was definitely fantasy, and I would guess that it is young adult. It was about a boy and a girl, either cousins or brother and sister, who were both high school age. The boy was slightly younger than the girl and he was much more serious. The girl was more of a typical teenager, and I think a bit of a rebel. I don't remember how but somehow the boy and the girl get transported to another world - possibly this is caused by the father? This new world exists outside of time, in a way. It's populated by all kinds of ancient civilizations who have been living there for a long time, basically not aging. The civilizations include Neanderthals, Aztecs, possibly Vikings or Amazons, and a few others. They also are all able to communicate with each other, which is due to the magical properties of these crystals that are plentiful in this realm. The color of the crystals corresponds to its abilities. One color of crystal acts as a translator. Another color is a source of energy. Another color causes them to live forever. Another color acts as a protective barrier. One thing I DISTINCTLY remember happening is when the boy and the girl end up there they are taken to the leader, who questions either their cell phones or their flashlights. At this point the boy attempts to explain science to the people, but the translator crystal keeps translating the word "science" as "magic". The boy tries a couple of times and then finally is able to say "science", but that has no meaning to the crystal people.

I don't remember exactly what happens next, but I know that the girl joins a tribe of female warriors - likely either Amazons or Vikings. The boy befriends several teenagers of different civilizations, including a Neanderthal boy. I remember that there is a clear class system in the crystal realm, and that the Neanderthals are basically treated as idiot servants. But **SPOILER** they are actually extremely intelligent and faking their stupidity out of paranoia. **END SPOILER**

I don't remember much of the overarching plot but I think there might have been some evil scheme and unrest brewing between civilizations. Also possibly crystals going missing?

Anyway, that's all of the information I can remember. Does anyone know what book I mean? Thank you so much!

**Edit**
This book has now been found, thanks to the much appreciated efforts of the glorious and lovely kaylee66!!!

The title is Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow.

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Entries tagged with cat: other worlds (discworld/narnia etc)

YA Series. Fantasy. Boy does a silly dance for his sister and teleports to a fantasy world

Lost books

Sci-Fi Comic Book World with Robot Virus (FOUND)

Young adult book about lost realm and magic crystals

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