The Indian in the Cupboard

"The Indian in the Cupboard" is a 1980 children's book written by British author Lynne Reid Banks. In the story, a young boy discovers that when he locks a toy plastic Iroquois Indian in an old bathroom cupboard, the figure comes to life.

The Indian in the Cupboard (1980)

The Return of the Indian (1985)

One day, Omri receives a letter announcing that he has won first prize in a competition for story-writing for his tale, "The Plastic Indian" (actually a factual recount of everything that happened in the first book; everyone else assumes that it is fictional.) Wanting to share his good news, Omri brings Little Bear and his wife Bright Stars back through the magic cupboard. But Omri sees right away that Little Bear has been badly wounded by a French musket, and will probably die if they cannot find a way to help him. Omri confronts Patrick again, and Patrick accepts that the magic and the little people are real once more. Patrick shows Omri a set of plastic figures that his cousin Tamsin recently got as a birthday present; it includes a modern surgical team. They intend to leave and bring the group to life in the cupboard, but Tamsin catches them on the way out and Omri is only able to bring one of the figures with him.

On the train home, Omri sees that he has taken the nurse from Tamsin's set. Seeing this as better than nothing, he and Patrick put the boy'sin the cupboard and bring her to life. The nurse, called Matron is led to believe that she is dreaming and saves Little Bear's life through careful operation. Matron also announces that Bright Stars is pregnant and the boys decide that they will bring her again when the baby is born.

As Little Bear recovers, Patrick brings back his old friend Boone through the cupboard. When Boone talks about ways to help Little Bear's people, Patrick gets the idea to take plastic soldiers (with modern weaponry) back through the cupboard to Little Bear's time. Little Bear likes the idea of using new weapons (he calls them "Now-Guns") but wants to only take fellow Iroquois warriors with him. So the boys buy several more plastic figures from the local shops and bring them all forward with the cupboard. They also recruit a miniature Royal Marine corporal named Fickets to instruct the Iroquois in weapons usage.

After Little Bear and his troops are sent back, the boys express a desire to go back themselves. A casual comment by Boone prompts Omri and Patrick to wonder if it is merely the key which is magical and not the cupboard- meaning that if they found something big enough they could indeed go back. Using a large chest he acquired recently, Omri is sent back and inhabits a drawing on Little Bear's teepee. Omri witnesses a group of Little Bear's enemies, the Algonquins attacking the village and he is nearly burned to death before Patrick brings him back. He bears a few scars from this encounter and is visibly shaken. Later that night Patrick brings the Iroquois back only to find that they were completely unprepared for the use of modern weapons and their numbers have been decimated, their unfamiliarity with the power of the weapons resulting in them surrounding their enemies and shooting without realising how far the shots would travel. Matron is able to save several lives but many are near death and eight of them have already died. Little Bear feels ashamed of leading his troops into death, but Bright Stars is able to comfort him by showing off their newborn son, whom he names Tall Bear.

As Omri sleeps downstairs, he spots a trio of skinheads breaking into the house and taking a few of his families' possessions. He becomes enraged and brings back their Marine friend Fickets along with a compliment of troops to deal with the burglars. Omri, Patrick and the soldiers defeat and scare the skinheads, leaving Omri free of their oppression for good as they are now too scared of him to hurt him any more.

The Mystery of the Cupboard (1992)

Omri and family move to the rural country, where they have inherited a house from the family of Jessica Charlotte Driscoll, Omri's "wicked" great-great aunt. There, Omri learns the origin of the magic key and its history of time travel.Omri does all of this as one night when the roof is being re-thatched he finds a cashbox and a journal called the Account in the fallen thatch on the ground. The Account is written by Jessica Charlotte herself as she's dying of a fatal illness. Omri learns that she has a psychic gift that grants her some magical power to see the future by pouring lead for people, although she was also a dance-hall star in the early twentieth century. After she is separated forever from her niece Lottie (Omri's grandmother through his mother's side who was killed in the bombing of London by the Germans) by Lottie's mother, she steals a pair of precious earrings from her sister. In order to do so she makes the Key- a duplicate of the key for her sister's jewel-case- which she accidentally imbues with magical power through her own Gift as she is so bent on making it and her will puts the magic into it by accident allowing her to open any lock with it. She is also accidentally responsible for Omri's great-grandfather's death as Lottie is accused of stealing the earrings and runs out into the street where her father follows her but is run over and killed.

Unfortunately Jessica grows too weak to finish the Account and has Omri's great-uncle Fredrick take over. From this Omri learns of the fact that Fredrick actually created the Cupboard which itself turns out to be somewhat magic. Fredrick had a hatred of plastic toys so Jessica had him create it and throw his hatred of plastics into it. Since Fredrick inherited some of her power this caused the cupboard to somehow only bring plastic toys to life which is why nothing else ever worked when Omri tried it in the cupboard. Omri's interference with his own family history sets the stage for his first adventures.

Omri also meets one of the thatchers who thatched the roof when Jessica was dying, a man named Tom, and learns from him that Jessica somewhat let him in on the secret. She also gave him a little person to care for on his own named Jenny, but after having lived as a little person for thirty years she had died a few months before Omri met Tom. Omri initially suspects that the stolen earrings are in the cashbox he found with the Account and realizes that the magic key could probably open it. He goes to get it out of the bank during his half-term during which time he also has Patrick join him. Patrick breaks his arm and has to go to the hospital and while he's away Omri opens the cashbox and finds five wrapped bundles, four of whom are people brought to life by the magic key (Although one has died since he was last 'summoned'). He suspects the fifth bundle is the earings. The people turn out to be Elsie- a widowed shop owner-, Bert- a thief from Elsie's time-, Ted- a retired policeman- and (the one who had died) Sergeant Charlie Ellis- a naval officer who apparently fought at the Battle of Trafalgar-, all of whom Jessica herself brought to life repeatedly with the cupboard. They reveal that Jessica knew of the power of the key and the cupboard but only found out when she accidentally brought them to life for the first time. She brought them back and forth many times like Omri did with Little Bear and the others and eventually revealed to them that she was dying before sending them all back, except for Jenny who had only a horrible life to go back to. Omri learns that one of them, Bert, is the one who stole his great-grandmother's jewellery box after her husband had died and made her live a poor life. After learning this (Bert had only just done it before he was brought forward, believing that he had robbed the woman before her husband had died) Omri insists that Bert return the jewellery box to her hoping to change her future for the better. He finally convinces him and then sends them back one final time through the cupboard.

Omri subsequently learns that the last bundle is not the earrings but another sleeping person, but before he can investigate further he is called to the house of the old thatcher Tom. Tom fell and was fatally injured but asked for Omri having remembered something more. He tells him that Jessica sent him all over the place looking for a plastic figure of herself. He bought dozens not knowing which one was just right and after she looked through them and found the one she told him to take care the rest, still just plastic figures, saying "this is me but everyone is someone." After he finishes his story Tom looses consciousness and is taken to the hospital and dies never again waking up. Omri and his father also retrive Patrick from the hospital and head home where Omri explains that he's figured out the final person he brought to life's identity: it's Jessica Charlote herself, apparently just after she fell asleep after creating the key.

Omri wants to convince her to not to take the earrings but Patrick tells him that doing so could change the future and possibly result in him not being born due to Lottie's life turning out in such a manner that she never meets his grandfather. Omri freaks out remembering his convincing Bert to return the jewellery case and worries that that will cause him to cease to exist. Jessica wakes up and Omri and Patrick tell her she's visiting the future and its a dream and get her to give a performance for them. They greatly enjoy it but when Gillon starts to come in send her home suddenly through the cashbox. Later Omri learns from his mother that the jewellery box was returned in ruins with none of the jewellery inside changing nothing (Bert only said he would return the jewel-case without specifying that the jewels would still be in it). He then remembers she mentioned something about this back when she first gave him the key so everything is alright. A week later he attends Tom's funeral and figures out that Jessica gave the earrings to Tom who gave them to his daughter after he sees her wearing them. He's solved the mystery but decides not to do anything about it.

He returns home to find that his father has added proper shelves to his room and bolts on the door so he can lock them. He's excited but can't find Little Bear and the others. He goes to his father to ask him about it and learns he locked them in the cupboard and heard them come alive. In the end, Omri's father finds out about the "little people" and is let in on their adventures. He promises not to tell anyone and Omri brings him in on the secret and introduces him to everyone.

The Key to the Indian (1998)

Omri and his father learn that Little Bear needs their help as American colonists are starting to head into his people's land. The two realize that they must travel back in time and lend their aid but need to figure out how to do it. They have the key but they need something big enough to hold them. Omri's chest that he and Patrick used before was destroyed in the twister they accidentally brought back and it isn't big enough to hold them. Omri's dad decides to use the car as the time machine and comes up with an elaborate plan to pretend to go on a camping trip as a cover for their time trip but they realize that they key won't work in the car and start to despair. Omri tells his father everything about what he learned and shows him the Account.

After reading that, Omri's dad figures out that Jessica Charlote could possibly create them a magical copy of the car key so they can travel back in time. The two also figure out that Omri has inherited some of her psychic power and that's most likely why can tell when one of his friends from the past needs his help. It gives Omri the power to sense various things like he's able to figure out what's going on with Jessica in her time although she was so weak at this pint when she wrote the Account that only a few words can be made out: she's learned that her brother-in law has died and is going to try to drown herself. The two feel that they must bring her forward no matter what. Omri later brings her, initially planning on waiting but his psychic gift senses her in trouble and causes him to bring her forward. She's drowned herself and isn't breathing so Omri summons Matron who manages to revive her. He tries to comfort her about what happened and when she hears that he's Lottie's grandson she agrees to make a magical copy of the car key. He brings his father and they give her the key and send her back. That night they summon Little Bear in order to get something of his to use to travel back and he gives them his wampam belt. He also agrees to have Bright Stars make toys for them to travel into when they journey to the past.

The next day Omri's father summons Jessica Charlote without him and she returns the original car key and gives them the copy, but unfortunately the scale difference means that the key is too small to see, and hence is useless to them. They decide to go camping anyway and bring Gillon along but Omri has an ivory elephant from India and Gillon is leaning against a knapsack from that time also and they suddenly find themselves in India about 90 years before. Omri figures out that Jessica Charlote's attempt to create the magical copy of the car key where she bent her entire will on it probably caused the original car key to become magical. He figures his father will realize what happened and bring them back by shutting off the car. During the trip Omri and Gillon are marrionetts- Gillon, embarassingly enough, is a female figure-, and a couple of children spot them moving on their own and try to show them off. Feeling bad for the children Omri goes along with it but when the children's mother shows up both Omri and Gillon are dropped and Gillon hits his head. Thankfully before they can get hurt further they're pulled back to their time where Omri finds they never left the house as the father got pulled back to Little Bear's time due to the wampam belt being in his pocket and were pulled back when Omri's mother found them and shut off the car fearing they were dead. Omri's father ended up in a faceless doll but Little Bear promised that next time the dolls woild have faces.

The two decide to pretend to go camping but head to the top of a nearby hill and time travel from there. They summon Patrick to send them there and back but Patrick is unhappy he won't be going until he realizes that he has the cupboard and can call any of their friends back. He sends them back and they meet up with Little Bear. The two eventually advise Little Bear to take his tribe to Canada but are attacked by two settlers. They set fire to the longhouse and start killing Indians. Old Clan Woman, the oldest and wisest member of the tribe manages to scare them off with Omri and his father's help but she is killed by the two retreating men. Little Bear and his tribe escape and start the trek to Canada but Omri and his father are forgotten in the rush. They escape outside but are trapped in the stockade and the two men return and go to kill them. Before they can succeed Little Bear returns having remembered them after hearing of their heroic actions earlier and kills the two men and rescues them. He also retrives a false fase mask from the longhouse. He apologizes to them for leaving them behind and is ashamed as Omri is his blood brother. He tells Omri he is no longer a boy: Omri is now a warrior. He leaves the two a moccasin to use as a cave as Patrick is bringing them back in the morning and leaves after saying a final goodbye.

The next morning they are returned to their time by a frantic Patrick who explains that he brought Boone and Ruby Lou and lost them. They eventually find them in a septic tank and rescue and clean them up. Patrick also reveals that he planned to bring Little Bear to the present while they were away but Seargent Fickits convinced him not to. A couple of weeks later Omri's mother brings him the wampam belt and he realizes that she knows the truth. She reveals that she, like Omri has inherited some of Jessica Charlotte's psychic powers and seeming to read his mind she explains that she's known the truth since the beginning but has kept it to herself. They both agree that it's time to end the adventures for good. Omri closes his figures and the magical car key in the cashbox and decides to give the magic key back to his mother as he no longer will have the temptation to use it to bring the others back again. He first sends the wampam belt back and senses through his psychic powers that Little Bear and his tribe have successfully and safely reached Canada and reveals this to his father along with the fact that his mother knows the truth.