# Can anyone tell me what book this is? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 29, 2003, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-what-book-this-is/204401 "2003-09-29T01:04:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-what-book-this-is/204401/1 "2003-09-29T01:04:26Z")
HEY! My first thread! This is a vague description, so bear with me. I read a book as a kid (in the early 1980s) that I would like to read again. Here’s the problem… I don’t remember anything about it except the protagonist was a boy of about 12 or so, and he falls through a hole from the present time to either the past or an alternate universe. There may have been unicorns involved at some point. I believe a girl of about his age helps him to find a cave back to his own time. The cover was of a boy in a jean jacket falling. I think it was geared toward the 10-14 set, but I was pretty young, maybe four or five (I started reading very early). Can you help? ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-what-book-this-is/204401/2 "2003-09-29T01:08:30Z")
Maybe _The Forgotten Door_ by Alexander Key? (No unicorns…) ---
**Author:** ![Winterwren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Winterwren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winterwren)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-what-book-this-is/204401/3 "2003-09-29T01:09:49Z")
One possibility is _A Swiftly Tilting Planet_, by Madeleine L’Engle. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-what-book-this-is/204401/4 "2003-09-29T01:13:21Z")
Hmm. Don’t know that one, but it’s a favorite genre of mine. Russell Hoban did two of the best: _The Rain Door_ and _The Trokeville Way._ ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-what-book-this-is/204401/5 "2003-09-29T01:15:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Helena \* > \*\*Maybe _The Forgotten Door_ by Alexander Key? (No unicorns…) \*\* That could _so_ be it. I’ve been looking for this book off and on for about 10 years… (checks [amazon.com](http://amazon.com)) I LOVE YOU!!! And I can get it for $.44 ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-what-book-this-is/204401/6 "2003-09-29T01:37:10Z")
You’re welcome! If you like that one, you might check out everything else Alexander Key has written. His books are all remarkably similar. My personal favorite is _The Preposterous Adventures of Swimmer_, about a talking otter. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-what-book-this-is/204401/7 "2003-09-29T01:43:06Z")
Hey, I read that book in 1975 or so. It was one of my favorites too. ---
**Author:** ![vengence\_will\_be\_mine.maybe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/58956e/32.png) [@vengence\_will\_be\_mine.maybe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vengence_will_be_mine.maybe)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-what-book-this-is/204401/8 "2003-09-29T03:12:05Z")
It’s not the Last Unicorn is it? I know it was a movie but it could quite possibly have been a book also ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-tell-me-what-book-this-is/204401/9 "2003-09-29T10:23:43Z")
Oh, I read The Forgotton Door when I was in school! My copy did have a picture of the kid falling backwards. Don’t think there were unicorns, but all the ordinary wild animals were friendly and unafraid of people, in the place where the kid came from. I think the family he hitched up with eventually went back to his homeplace with him.