HELP! I'm looking for a young adult fiction - no title - no author

[mikelgb]

I need help remembering the title of a book I read in 4th grade and would like to revisit. That means it must have been published before 1993. Here are plot points or details I remember:

- a boy is in class and is called to the principals office
- when he enters the principal's office he is in another dimension
- he soon is given or finds a plate that will materialize any food he speaks
- I believe his quest is to vanquish a wolf or dog-like creature
- To do this he must adventure to find three strands and combine them to form a special weapon
- One of the strands is obtained from a woman who gives him a satchel. At first the boy is disappointed that he did not obtain a strand as expected from the woman but then he realizes the string that is around the satchel is one of the strands

cover:
I remember a cream or light yellow colored hardcover book with a red sun a wolf creature and a mountain in black outline I think

I hope this is enough information to elicit a title from someone who may have read the book.

Thanks for your help DU.

[momster]

1. Alexander Key?

He specialized in books about boys and girls moving through magic or inter-dimensional whatsits into alternate realities. His best known book (and only one still in print) is The Forgotten Door. I don't think that's the one you are looking for...but Key might be a good author to sample to see if it jogs your memories.

Otherwise, I suggest searching out an on-line young adult review site and submitting your question to the group. Many book groups have a 'that book with the red cover" type question sections and the mind of the collective can sometimes come up with amazing solutions.

Good luck!

[mikelgb]

2. Thanks for the suggestions.

[mikelgb]

3. I do not think it is Alexander Key although they look very good

can you reccomend a review site.

I also looked for and was unable to find a bookfinder site where you can search the text of books.

[momster]

4. Suggestions -- I got suggestions!

www.allreaders.com (search by plot, setting or character)
http://www.readerville.com
http://www.sff.net/ (this is *the* site for sff writers/readers. Somebody there may have loved the book too...)

Also, haunt your local used book stores. It's strange how often I've stumbled over a book that I'd been thinking of the day before. Bookstore really are inter-dimensional cross-wave zones.

Speaking as a writer myself (published about 25 books to date), it's warming to realize that something you wrote years ago might be remembered always by someone you've never met. I sincerely hope you find the 'one' you are looking for...and that the author is still around so you can tell him/her how much that book means to you.

[mikelgb]

5. Thanks.

The search is great but I still haven't found it...

it is hard because I am judging the books by the titles but it could easily be a normal title not directly related to the plot

[mikelgb]

6. STILL cannot locate this title

I am begining to think that it only exists in my head or is long since out-of-print

[momster]

7. One last thought

do you have any idea of any name at all in connection --- a character maybe? If you kinda, sorta maybe thought the boy's name was "???", it might help. Or the name of the place he went to, or anything else that's quite specific.

[mikelgb]

8. I have tried so hard to come up with something like that

my memories of it are mostly mental images of the settings and scenarios I built in my imaginataion while the book was being read to me.

[MountainLaurel]

9. Go to your local public library

And ask the children's or YA librarian. It's his or her job to know this stuff, and he or she will have access to various databases where you can search this sort of thing easily. Also, there are all sorts of librarian listservs where they can get input from thousands of colleagues across the county.

[mikelgb]

10. FOUND!

"The Hero From Otherwhere" - Jay Williams

THANK YOU DUER Reader Rabbit!

[zingaro]

11. Cool!