100 Cupboards

Book 1 of the 100 Cupboards

By: N. D. Wilson

Narrated by: Russell Horton

Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Twelve-year-old Henry York wakes up one night to find bits of plaster in his hair. Two knobs have broken through the wall above his bed and one of them is slowly turning. Henry scrapes the plaster off the wall and discovers cupboards of all different sizes and shapes. Through one he can hear the sound of falling rain. Through another he sees a glowing room with a man pacing back and forth! Henry soon understands that these are not just cupboards, but portals to other worlds.

100 Cupboards is the first book of a new fantasy adventure, written in the best world-hopping tradition and reinvented in N. D. Wilson's inimitable style.

©2007 N. D. Wilson (P)2007 Random House, Inc.

Fun book

This book is great for kids. It does not have a strong language or raunchy parts. The story was entertaining and made me want to read the next book, even though this book seemed to take a while to get started. It wasn’t boring, but not much happened in the first half. By the end of the book, I felt like the groundwork had been laid for the next books. I have yet to read them, but this book felt introductory. Don’t get me wrong, there was a plot and a conclusion that was fun to listen to, but by the end we feel like we are beginning to understand the complex world that is being created, and with that groundwork, the next books should be quite entertaining.

Amazing

Funny characters, good voicing, and long, amazing story! Amazing and fun twists and turns! Everybody should listen to this awesome story!

great story botched by bad narrator

I have read this series before several years ago. I was happy to revisit it in audio form, and am realizing how masterfully written it is now that I have a better grasp of the art of writing. this is doubly true when compared to a lot of the mass-produced, low quality stories that are on this site.
the children feel like real children and they don't really fit into any cliche archetype. for example, if this book was written by anyone else, the two lead children, Henry and Henrietta would be a cliche duo of soft, wimpy, soft spoken, nerdy boy and brash, outgoing, strong, tomboy. but they are not. Henry was a sheltered child that has resulted in him being less than as physically adept as other boys his age, but he relishes the opportunity to be a kid, play baseball, have a knife, and break rules that he never would have at home. Henrietta is more physically capable and braver than Henry, but that is really only is comparison to him. she is absolutely not a tomboy, she doesn't play baseball or has any rough and tumble type of personality. the only boy she spends any time with is Henry. she is just overly curious and has an inhibited sense of risk management and isn't scared of getting in trouble.
I also love Henrietta's dad. he is such a bizarre person in the best way. he walks the line of having an inhuman, alien personality and just being a normal guy. the way he processes information and how he views his relationships is a great example. he always treats everyone with respect, he can be prideful but values his wife's desires more than his pride, and he encourages Henry to be reckless. but at the same time, he can be blunt and insensitive and views keeping secrets about Henry from Henry as unfair, not considering how that knowledge will effect him, dropping a fairly huge bombshell about Henry's parents on him in a very offhanded way like it wasn't a big deal, and let's Henry do things that to any other adult in charge would be absolutely insane (like tearing the plaster off his bedroom wall and dumping the rubble in secret in the field behind the house in the middle of the night). but once you find out more about him, his uncanny valley personality makes a lot more sense.
there is a lot more praise I can give the book, I haven't even touched on the magic or the plot, but I am going to finish with the worst part. the narrator. he isn't always bad, when he isn't doing dialogue he has a great voice. but he has two major narration weaknesses. 1 he cannot do voices, especially girl voices. I HATE it whenever a girl speaks because his voice sounds awful. second, he messes up the inflection of dialogue a LOT. he puts the wrong emphasis on the wrong word, or changes the intended tone. I almost have to mentally retranslate what is being said to something that makes sense and it is beyond distracting. I would not suggest getting this audiobook. Get it on Kindle or as a hardcopy instead.

I wish Frank were my Father!

What made the experience of listening to 100 Cupboards the most enjoyable?

The narrator does an incredible job delineating between the different characters: bratty younger sister, headstrong middle sister and poor Henry, thrown quite unexpectedly into the mix but Frank, well, Mr. Wilson gives Frank such innate wisdom in being a father and quite a few memorable quotes. I laughed out loud at the children's squabbles and my heart sighed whenever Frank dispensed his fatherly wisdom.
What a great book for children AND adults!

Fantasy as it should be

N.D. Wilson follows in the tradition of C.S Lewis. This story had excellent driving mysteries and highly like able characters. The writing style is vivid and energetic. It is the kind of fantasy literature that leaves you with a greater appreciation for reality.

The performance is excellent, and musical transitions are well deployed.

There are some scary scenes. My seven year old enjoyed listening to select (non-scary) parts of the story, but my guess is that she won't be ready for the full story for a few years yet. I definitely recommend this to adults who are looking for an good story and want to avoid the escapism (especially sexual escapism and preoccupation) common in adult fantasy.

LOVED IT!!!

Awesome book! Can't wait to read the next two in the series. Highly recommend whether your 10 or 50, really great story.

intriguing!

loved it! a bit hard to get into it at first but look forward to reading the second & I think my 8 year old son will love it!

Fantastic

Russell Horton needs to narrate more books. This was the perfect performance of a wonderful story.

New fan

My first ND Wilson read. It will not be my last. A well told story that starts a little slow but pulls you in deeper and deeper until you cannot put it down. A creative fresh read!

Delightfully Inventive

From the first time I read 100 Cupboards, I loved it. ND Wilson weaves part fantasy and part reality to create this enchanting tale. Once you begin listening or reading, you won't be able to stop!