The Mystery of the Cupboard
core novel 1993 The Indian in the Cupboard
Record
| First published | 1993 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.86 (5,963 ratings, collected 2026-11-02) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780688121389 |
| Internal chronology | 4 |
Synopsis
Omri's family moves into a country house his mother has inherited from a distant relative. There Omri finds out where the magic cupboard came from. Hidden in the thatched roof is a manuscript dictated on her deathbed by a woman named Jessica Charlotte, who confesses that she envied her sister Maria, who was Omri's great-great-grandmother, and that she stole Maria's earrings, setting off a chain of misfortune. Omri finds Jessica Charlotte's old toy figures and learns that the cupboard can bring them to life. He tries to use them to send a message into the past and set things right, without understanding that changing history could change his own family and his own existence.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Indian in the Cupboard
- Series: The Indian in the Cupboard core; position 4 of 5 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Lynne Reid Banks
Notes
- From the series record (The Indian in the Cupboard): Five children's fantasy novels about a boy, a magic cupboard and the toy figures it brings to life.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Indian in the Cupboard: position 4 of 5: previous The Secret of the Indian (1989) · next The Key to the Indian (1998)
Sources
- Wikipedia: The Indian in the Cupboard
- Biblio listing, first edition (HarperCollins/Morrow, 1993)
- Kirkus Reviews
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