Title: The Mystery of the Cupboard
Author: Lynne Reid Banks
Date: 1993
Publisher: Morrow
ISBN: 0-688-12138-1
Length: 246 pages
Illustrations: pencil drawings by Tom Newsom
Quote: “She was some kind of actress back around the time of the First World War. Going on the stage in those days was considered fairly wicked.”
This is the concluding volume of a four-book series about a little boy called Omri whose toys come to life when locked in the magic cupboard. He’s still a little boy, but he’s become quite mature through his relationships with his miniature adults, including the soldiers. Omri has, however, observed only the most family-filtered effects of his toys’ sexuality, as when a miniature man turns out to have a wife and child. Now he’s old enough to learn about the effects of sex by discovering the long-hidden diaries of his “wicked” aunt, who made the cupboard magic.
Reviews of books that were published in sequence usually say that it’s possible to enjoy this book without reading the ones that came before it. In the case of The Mystery of the Cupboard I’m not sure that that’s true. There’s a lot of back-story behind this novel. Moreover, the series reads as if it were written for one or more growing children: The Indian in the Cupboard was a story for middle school students, but The Mystery of the Cupboard is much more of a story for adults who still enjoy whimsy enough to want to know how the author tied up the loose ends from The Indian in the Cupboard. I’d think twice about handing volume four of this series to the average child who’d enjoyed volume one.
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