A Wind in the Door Book Review

Book Title: A Wind in the Door

Author: Madeline L'Engle

Publish Date: 1973
Publisher: Dell Publishing Company

Series: A Wrinkle in Time series #2

A Wind in the Door by Madeline L'Engle

Suggested Grade: 9th grade and up

Suggested Format: Independent reading

Synopsis: 

Meg and Calvin are back with some strange new friends. Blanjey, a Teacher, Proginoskes, a cherubim, and Sporos, a farandole, team up to face three challenges to save Charles Wallace. Charles Wallace is dying from "mitochondritis," a syndrome that his mother has only begun to understand using her new scientific equipment. 

Full of adventure, the team travel from the mundane of school to the outer cosmos and back to Earth in the form of inhabitants of Charles Wallace's mitochondria. How can an enemy that is nothing be defeated? And why is it attacking Charles Wallace?

Teacher's Notes: 

This is a much more difficult read than A Wrinkle in Time. An excellently written fantasy, it engulfs the reader in the world of the macrocosmic and microcosmic. Full of scientific jargon and settings, this story is not for the general casual reader. I would not recommend this book for anyone until at least High School, and even some college students will have difficulty with it. It does offer a wonderful glimpse into the mind of L'Engle's fundamental understandings of being and voids, and the importance of naming and living completely.

Overall: 7/10

How I Got the Book: Purchased for my collection

Suggested Interests: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction