A child stuck in time

January 22, 2009 8:06 PM

Young adult novel filter: A child visits a place (house? castle? other world?) and gets stuck in time there. Eventually he goes back and visits his parents, who are horrified that he has stayed the same age.

If I remember correctly, every day there is a year in the real world (but it could've been every week there is a year or something like that). When he goes back, his parents think it is some kind of sick joke (since they have aged many years and he appears the same age).

I read it around 6th grade, I think, so it should be around that level.

posted by NoraReed to writing & language (7 comments total)

It's The Thief of Always by Clive Barker. I think he also drew the occasional pictures in the book, too. I loved this book in the sixth grade, too! I bought it from the Scholastic Book club because I recognized Clive Barker's name from the Hellraiser movies.
posted by mustard seeds at 8:17 PM on January 22

Just FYI, if you substituted "brother" for "parents", this would also fit Singularity, by William Sleator.
posted by WCityMike at 9:17 PM on January 22

No, Singularity is backwards — one of a set of twins forced himself to stay in a cabin where time passes about a thousand times faster than it does on the outside. He emerges a year older than his twin.

Yeah, it's Barker.
posted by adipocere at 9:32 PM on January 22

YES, love this book. I came in here all giddified to post the answer, alas we have too many cool people on MeFi. =)
posted by thatbrunette at 11:50 PM on January 22

Reminds me of Flight of the Navigator.
What a great flick.
posted by jozxyqk at 2:34 AM on January 23

Singularity is also a great book, though. Really interesting concept, and well done. I read it in seventh grade, and then searched and searched until I found it and reread it the year after I graduated high school. While it's not the one you're looking for, it comes highly recommended.
posted by Night_owl at 10:00 AM on January 23

There's a comic version of Thief of Always now, if you're interested. (In fact, wanna buy it from me :)?)
posted by curagea at 10:33 AM on January 23