A Wind in the Door
A Wind in the Door | ||||||||||||
Hardcover - USA - 1st edition. |
||||||||||||
|
A Wind in the Door is a children's science fiction novel written by Madeleine L'Engle and published in 1973. It is the second book in the A Wrinkle in Time series, the sequel to A Wrinkle in Time, and was followed-up by A Swiftly Tilting Planet.
In the story, Meg Murry's younger brother Charles Wallace is having a difficult time adapting to school because he is so much smarter than the other children in his class. Worse still, if a pair of mysterious strangers are to be believed, he appears to have some sort of deadly illness disease affecting his mitochondria. Meg teams up her boyfriend Calvin and principal Mr. Jenkins to try and discover the cause of his illness in the hope of saving Charles Wallace's life, and, possibly, even the entire universe.
Contents
Personal
Own? | Mass-market paperback - USA - Dell. |
---|---|
Read? | Mass-market paperback - USA - Dell / Audiobook read by Jennifer Ehle. |
Finished | 2007-01-07 / 2024-08-31. |
I read and enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time a couple times in my teens and early 20s, and, though I had a copy of this book on my shelf for years, and admired the creepy wings and eyes on the cover of the Dell mass-market paperback, it still took me several years before I finally became curious enough to decided to read it. Although I liked the book, I didn't find it as enjoyable as the original. Curious to see how it held up, I read it again in my 40s, and it still did.
Review
Overall: |
![]() |
Good
- L'Engle is again great at making the reader feel her descriptions. The Murry's home is extremely homey, the creepy places are quite creepy, and the villains are wonderfully scary. The initial meeting of the Mr. Jenkins simulacrum is quite unsettling.
- Like its predecessor, the story uses a lot of big words and complex scientific concepts. While this will alienate some, I find that it serves to entice most children into learning more about the topics.
- I like how L'Engle describes harmonies existing in enormously huge systems, ridiculously small systems, and even harmonies which intermix between the two to show a connectedness between everything.
- The over all theme of the story is good: individualism is very important, but it must be married with responsibility.
- I love how Proginoskes calls Meg, "Megling."
Bad
-
-
-
- When the group enters Yadah, I had a very hard time trying to envision what was going on. Describing alien concepts like the size and appearance of an adult farandolae which exists outside of the spacial dimensions was a difficult task which didn't make sense to me.
- I know it's a kids' book, but when Meg's parents are listing reasons for how the world has gotten so bad, saying there is excessive traffic isn't exactly a persuasive example.
- The family lets their dog Fortinbras drink cocoa which is mildly toxic to dogs.
Ugly
- Nothing.
Media
Covers
Fan Art
Representation
Strong female character? | Pass | Meg Murry is strong and grows through the story. Her mother and Dr. Louise are also strong. |
---|---|---|
Bechdel test? | Pass | There are a few conversations between the women, though most focus on Charles Wallace. |
Strong person of color character? | Fail | Blajeny is described multiple times as "dark," which I think is meant to describe his skin. However, he's not human, and he never does much as a character other than give advice, so, even if he is meant to be black, he's more of a Magical Negro. |
Queer character? | Fail | There are no queer characters. |
Quotes
— This section contains spoilers! —
- Love isn't how you feel. It's what you do.
- We tend to think things are new because we just discovered them.
Adaptions
The book has been adapted to an audio book at least twice and to a stage play twice.
Links
- Books
- Books Published in 1973
- Teen Books
- Books written by Madeleine L'Engle
- Fiction
- Book Genre - Fantasy
- Book Genre - Science Fiction
- Media Theme - Adventure
- Media Theme - Fantasy
- Media Theme - Horror
- Media Theme - Science fiction
- Books I Own
- Books I've Read
- Books Rated - 6
- Books with a strong female character
- Books that pass the Bechdel test
- Books without a strong person of color character
- Books without a queer character