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I remember reading this book as a kid. It was a hard-cover book with a picture of an alien jumping up and down or dancing in the bottom right-hand corner of the cover. It was definitely geared toward young adults or children. A chapter book.

The protagonist is a boy who travels beyond the walls of his home. Eventually he learns his home is at the center of a giant spaceship through which he has been traveling through all its layers. I believe the alien creature from the cover was his companion and had a quirky, funny personality. I also remember the boy eating cube-shaped food that arrives automatically and not knowing where it comes from until he travels to one of the other “worlds” (layers of the ship) and sees that food is produced and sent to them from another place.

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    None of the answers to Young man discovers his home “world” is a spaceship match?
    – Null ♦
    Commented May 20, 2020 at 4:53
  • 1
    This may be an obvious question, but was this in English?
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented May 20, 2020 at 10:30
  • It was in English, yes.
    – Emily Yang
    Commented May 20, 2020 at 18:27
  • None of the answers to the thread about “young man discovers his home “world” is a spaceship match what I am looking for. I did look up each of those books, but none sound familiar or have the alien companion I remember.
    – Emily Yang
    Commented May 20, 2020 at 18:28
  • A long time ago, there was a question posted on here asking for help finding what might be the same old story about a teenage boy on a pilgrimage inside what turned out to be a generation ship. At the time, I didn't know the answer. Later, I stumbled across an old SF novel that might have been it. Now I can't remember the title of that novel. I think I found a copy on OpenLibrary.org, but it appears that I can't bring up a list of all the books on that site that I've previously "checked out" to read.
    – Lorendiac
    Commented May 20, 2020 at 19:29

1 Answer 1

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The World and Thorin by Damon Knight. Some similar passing themes of a boy travelling through different layers in a generation ship, eating cube food, finding an AI computer box. Does the cover strike a bell?

Cover

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  • No alien companion in that one, although it is a good book. I asked after it at scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/55178/…
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented May 21, 2020 at 13:34
  • It doesn’t strike a bell, but it seems too much of a coincidence that the storyline is so similar. Maybe my memory is failing me. I’ll have to get this one and read it. And I can ask my dad if he has seen this book before because he is the one who owned the book I remember. He hasn’t remembered it or found it yet though. Thank you for your help!
    – Emily Yang
    Commented May 22, 2020 at 14:06
  • Thorin’s nickname was flea because he had one leg longer slightly by birth than the other and had a bit of a hopping walk, if that is the hopping connection. And companion was a magic box he finds that talked to him... which was an AI computer for the ship.
    – SeaOttre
    Commented May 23, 2020 at 17:15

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