The Other Place (book)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Other Place is a book written by Monica Hughes.

[edit] Plot

Pre-teen Alison Fairweather and her family were living in a not-so-distant future when they were taken from their homes and forced to stay in a penal colony, Habitat W, for five years because of a crime against WOGPO, the World Government. ^[1] Within a month, Gordie Fairweather, Alison's 8 year-old brother, started having dreams about "Xanadu", a paradise he believed existed behind the walls of their prison. Gordie succeeded in finding Xanadu, and Alison followed him.

In Xanadu, Gordie and Alison met Jay, the supposed leader of Xanadu. Alison found that all of Xanadu's inhabitants, besides Jay, were young children. At first, the children did not approve of Alison because of her age, but they became familiar with Alison, and accepted her.^[2]

One day, when Alison and the children were eating dinner, Alison caught sight of a wild-looking young woman her age. She found the woman to be Kristin, her long-lost friend, who were among the inhabitants of the Habitats. Kristin was not accepted as part of the "Xanadu Family", and had been living in Xanadu, but as an outcast.^[3] Kristin did not have a liking to Jay, so she and Alison tried to follow Jay into his underground home, which he stayed in at night.

Kristin and Alison found that Jay was the one calling the children to go to Xanadu, and for each child he named the paradise differently. They also found out that Jay was the one that had the idea of Xanadu, which was originally the "Botany Bay Project". Jay caught Kristin and Alison, but still let them stay in Xanadu, both as regular habitants.

The children living in Xanadu learned to adapt, and Jay was pleased. Also, Jay revealed to Alison and Kristin that he was really a psychologist. As soon as everyone in Xanadu learned to become a real community, Jay left to tell WOGPO that everyone in the prison had died. Xanadu was therefore renamed, "Jay's World". ^[4]