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LightLand
H.L McCUTCHEN Scholastic, Inc., 2004
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What was your first memory? Lottie Cook, a sixth grader in Iowa, was told that she was born with her eyes wide open. She lived with her father (her mother died having her) in a farm town. Her father Eldon built a StoryBox out of the old cherry tree that Lottie's mother had grown. Ms. d'Avignon, Lottie's sixth grade teacher, made her class write an essay about their memories. Lottie thought she could write it in one afternoon, but realized she couldn't remember anything about her past.
As she slept, her father put the StoryBox into her room. The box started to shake and a very colorful bird named Umber popped out. Awakened by the shaking, Lottie was told about a land named LightLand. Umber pulled her into the box, and they dropped on the ground in front of a big cherry tree. He showed Lottie around this new land. She started to remember her memories as they walked through a corn field. The sun began to set as Umber took Lottie into a sleeping room. Before Lottie fell asleep, Umber warned her about a man named the NightKing who sucks your memories out.
When she awoke she was back in her bedroom. Walking to school she told her best friend Lewis about the land that she had visited the night before. As they walked through the cornfield, Lottie discovered it was the same one that she had walked though in LightLand.
When they got to class, Ms. d'Avignon asked Lewis to get up and talk about his Memory essay. Instead of talking he drew squiggles on the board. Ms. d'Avignon asked another student to interpret his essay. A girl named Alice answered her request with a very good response. Lottie was dumb struck, so was Lewis. That night Lewis slept over at Lottie's house. They ventured to LightLand through the glowing StoryBox.
They fell on the ground. It was pitch black out. Umber told her never to visit at night, because of the NightKing. They walked to an old windmill and Lewis remembered it as the one his lost father used to work in. After they walked inside the creepy windmill, they heard voices from upstairs.
They fell asleep on the stairway of the windmill. Only Lottie returned to earth, because Lewis had a weird way of sleeping; he didn't close his eyes. Lewis and Lottie were now in a fuddle, as Lottie must get back to LightLand to save her friend and kill the NightKing. Lewis met up with the NightKing, who turned out to be his father. He was captured and put in a room with dangerous bags. Lottie got back to LightLand and found the NightKing with Lewis. She went back to her house by touching one of the bags, but the NightKing followed her. She now had to fight him in her own territory. She killed the NightKing and returned to LightLand to save Lewis.
This book was an interesting book. There were some good parts like when she had to fight the NightKing. The alternate world was very creative. I thought the author should have tried to be more creative with her word usage. I would recommend this book to people that like to dream about their own memories.
~ Rochelle Beiersdorfer,7th grade, home schooled