My partner told me she wants a particular book for Christmas that she remembers reading when she was a child.
She remembers the title as Through the Open Door, but I can’t find it under that title. She doesn’t remember the name of the author.
It’s about a small boy on a farm, motherless, who is given a knife that turns out to be magic. He uses it to cut potatoes, then discovers he can cut openings to another world with it, and does so.
(She is **not ** thinking of Phillip Pullman. I made sure. This was definitely a kid’s book. A chapter book, but not YA.)
In this other world the protagonist discovers his mother is alive, or was alive, and was either a queen or some sort of savior/heroine to the locals.
Delphica is right, but your friend’s memory is only SLIGHTLY off.
Andrew Lansdown’s book has been published under two different titles: ***With My Knife ***and Beyond the Open Door. It’s available new and used via Amazon
Ah, I didn’t know about the new(?) title. Interesting. I wonder what the motivation was – because it did occur to me that nervous parents might think With My Knife was a book about gang violence. Beyond the Open Door has a much more “hey, this book is about magic adventures” feel to it.