100 Cupboards: the Graphic Novel

by N.D. Wilson
illustrated by Forrest Dickison
2026 / 240 pages
Rating: GREAT

When Henry York’s parents mysteriously disappear, the 12-year-old is sent to live with his aunt and uncle and their three daughters who all live on a farm in Kansas. They’re friendly and welcoming, but he’s out of sorts and shy and doesn’t quite know how to handle his cousins, especially the inquisitive Henrietta.

Then, when he starts hearing strange noises behind the attic wall above his bed, Henry discovers something fantastical. That wall is filled with small little doors and drawers that have been plastered over. Using a busted-up knife his uncle Frank gave him, Henry cleans off the plaster and discovers there are 99 tiny cupboard doors of all sorts of shapes and sizes. Then Henrietta discovers Henry’s secret, and the two of them go on to figure out that the cupboards are magical, leading to different places and maybe different worlds. Some are wonderful, and others scary and dark – one door opens to ghastly (evil?) vapors that make Henry faint.

But what good are any of these almost 100 cupboards if they are too small to crawl through to investigate what’s on the other side?

That’s when they discover the 100th, which is bigger and can open up to any of these other worlds. Henrietta disappears through it, Henry following reluctantly behind.

What do they find?

A dance hall… that seems to travel through time. An ancient Greek temple…. complete with real-live ancient Greeks. And an evil blind witch who sees through the eyes of her creepy pet cat. This is wild and woolly and wonderful, an epic adventure that is more complicated than Narnia but has some of the same wonder.

What we have now is the graphic novel version of the first book in the series, and it is so gorgeously done that even your most adamant non-reader kid won’t be able to help but pick this up off your living room coffee table. Illustrator Forrest Dickison’s pictures will make sure they take a look.

Cautions

The one caution would concern creepiness – there is certainly a smidge of it, with the creepiest probably being the blind witch because she wants to kill the kids. I’ve read the series this is based on, so I know where it goes, but if I didn’t know that the author was Christian, then her appearance would have had me wondering if this was really something I wanted my kids reading. But the author is simply addressing – and unlike many of today’s YA authors he is not celebrating – the freakiness that does exist in the world.

One other caution is of the sort that would apply to most kid fiction – that the kids don’t go to their parents anywhere near soon enough.

I will also share that I didn’t review the original 100 Cupboards series because I thought the author took God’s Name in vain. It’s not unusual to find Christian writers having a character stub a toe and let loose with God’s Name. If it was about realism, then they could have used “damn” or any number of other 4-letter expletives… but that kind of language would shock their audience. What Christian would buy a Christian novel with the F-word in it, after all? But revering God’s Name? Too much to ask. The thing is, God isn’t asking – He commands it (Ex. 20:7) – so we need to start treating His Name like the big deal it really is. That said, I think I may be wrong. What I objected to happens when Henry’s Uncle Frank wants to get through a locked bedroom door that has withstood every effort at opening it, so, right before throwing himself at it bodily, his uncle says, “Lord forgive me.” That could be done sincerely, but it struck me then as vain use because it is the only time God is mentioned in the entire book. But more to the point, this has been abridged out of the graphic novel.

Conclusion

I threw this on our couch downstairs, and that’s all it took to have each of my kids pick it up and read right through it. This is an epic adventure celebrating not simply the virtues of patience (Uncle Frank has that down!) courage, and family-loyalty but also wonder. The author is Christian, and I think the wonder of it all is where that comes through the most clearly. This graphic novel gives us glimpses of other worlds, but I think one of the author’s core beliefs is that wonder and magic – very real magic – is occurring not simply out there somewhere, or maybe in Kansas, but is happening right where you are, right now, under your very nose. If only you… and me, and us all, have the eyes to see.

This would be great for anyone 12 and up.