Customer Reviews

A Wind in the Door

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I didn't like "A Wrinkle in Time" much but I thought I would give this book a chance. I found it much worse. I really disliked all the pseudo-science, and the scenarios described almost felt psychodelic to me. Also I don't like how the Murray parents are double Ph.D.s and Mrs. (or Dr.) Murray a Nobel Prize contender - all these terms "Nobel Prize", "Ph.D." to me felt like were thrown into the story to add some kind of believability to it which felt really bogus to me. And incidentally, cooking food in a biology lab with a million harmful substances nearby, is something no true scientist would do. I guess it was a cute thing thrown in there but for me it just added to the general pseudoscience feeling. Plotwise, I found Meg rather annoying, and the whole Namer/UnNaming stuff felt super fake. I realize that this is a book for young adults and shouldn't really expect intense character development but I've read other books for young adults that I still find amazing at my age (26) and it practically killed me trying to get through this book.

Based on the high praise for L'Engle's books I bought "The Time Quintet" thinking that some day the set might make a nice gift for a young person. After reading the first two books, "A Wrinkle in Time" and "A Wind in the Door" I am astonished that so many readers are fascinated and entertained. I gave two stars to "Wrinkle" and thought that the other books would be much better but "Wind" is even worse. Much of this book is insanely nonsensical, like a hideous psychedelic trip.

What a fiction reader enjoys is participating in "the moment," catching the mood, mentally visualizing the characters and the setting, vicariously identifying with the characters, going with the flow of the dialogue and action. I think "Wind" fails miserably to satisfy most of these elements in the reader's experience. I was determined to finish the book but my patience was tested to the limit. After completing it I went back and decided that for one hundred pages (139-232) I could just as well have only scanned the pages, reading a few sentences on each page. Here Meg experiences a virtual cosmic reality, being inside her sick brother Charles Wallace. There she interacts with various good and evil spectral entities as well as delusional representations of a real person (Jenkins). She also makes extrasensory forays back to reality while ensconced in Charles. In the end her brother gets cured--I say: "Who cares how?" Who can honestly keep track of what is happening without making analytical notes? Who can enjoy doing so? Are children able to sort through the confusion and cheer on Meg, the heroine? Reviews show that many do. Good for them! Literature offers something for every taste.

(...)BR>What I could get out of the book was that the star charcater Charles Wallace was sick, badly ill, and his sister, Meg, is really worried for him, and makes it clear she would do anything to help him get better. Then, the one thing I liked most of this book, the plot immediatley comes to play as Charles takes Meg out into a field near their home and tells her there are 'a drive of dragons' somewhere. But at first Meg doesn't see anything. But later on she actually sees this 'drive of dragons' is truly a creature named Progo(well the name's longer than that but this is what Meg calls him throughout the story.) He's a science-fiction masterpiece with many wings and eyes. This creature sparks a journey that involves Meg, her supposed boyfriend named Calvin, and Progo itself as they are assigned to help save Charles from fatally evil beings called the Echthroi, who want to destroy Charles, as well as the world itself.
This book just wasn't my type of literature, but I didn't hate it. I just wasn't into the novel; I didn't feel any sort of connection like you should in a book.

A Wind in the Door, by Madeline L'Engle, is an extremely moving and exciting book. In this sequel to A Wrinkle in Time, Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace team up with snakes, teachers, mitochondria, and a Cherubum called Progo. It all starts one blustery day when Charles Wallace claims to have seen a drove of dragons in the twin's vegetable garden. Meg and Calvin then learn that Charles Wallace could have an extremely deadly condition: his mitochondria are dying. Charles Wallace is in danger of being X-ed.
This book sucks you in and won't let go until you have felt all of the emotion running rampant throughout. The story teaches the fact that amount doesn't matter, everything has a name, and it also teaches true, unconditional love.

At the beginning there were two long and boring chapters, and I thought the book would not be that great after all. Then at Chapter 3, I began to sense that the book would be better. I loved the test to find the real Mr. Jenkins at Chapters 5-6, and the last few chapters were a little scary but they were the best.
"Her voice issued from her lips almost without volition, cold, calm, emotionless. 'Mr. Jenkins Three---'
He stepped forward, smiling triumphantly.
'No. You're not the real Mr. Jenkins. You're much too powerful. You'd never have to be taken away from a regional school you couldn't control and made principal of a grade school you couldn't control, either.' She looked at Mr. Jenkins One and Two.'
I absolutely loved this book!

When six-year-old Charles Wallace begins telling his older sister, Meg Murry, that there are dragons in the garden, she immediately begins to worry. It's bad enough that he is being beaten up at school everyday, thanks to his extreme intelligence, and that he is seriously ill with some strange disease, and now this. But Meg soon finds out that Charles Wallace is right. There are dragons in the garden. Dragons who have come to help Charles Wallace fight his sickness, before it's too late, and to take Meg, and her great friend, Calvin O'Keefe, on a most terrifying, yet at the same time, wonderful journey into space, where they must battle evil to save Charles Wallace's life, and their own.

This was a fantastic sequel to A WRINKLE IN TIME. As usual, Meg Murry brings femininity to the group of three, along with tons of intelligence. While Calvin O'Keefe brings bravery. I was a little disappointed in the lack of Charles Wallace in this installment of the TIME QUARTET, but L'Engle makes up for it with quirky, fast-paced dialogue and adventure. A must-read for all fantasy fans.

Erika Sorocco

What if you knew of a world inside of you. A world so small that it was impossible to sense even with the most powerful microscope. What if you knew that if any thing happend to it, it would throw off the entire universe, giving a victory to evil,and killing you.This book can give you the answer.
It is the story of a girl's fight to save her brother. The story of a battle of good against evil,and it is the story of the harmony that connects us all. Meg has been given three tests if she fails, who knows what might happen. I liked the excitement and mystery in this book. Sure it was confusing, but I liked that. It really makes you think. If you enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time, then you'll enjoy this book.

The second in L'Engle's Time quartet, this one is just as wonderful as the first! The main characters (Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin) set out on another mission with the help of new characters in another attention grabbing plot. I would say more but you just have to read it for yourself! Madeleine L'Engle does a wonderful job with her characters and story.

This is a sequel to A Wrinkle In Time. Charles Wallace is now in the first grade where his peculiarities have caused him to be singled out by the other boys who beat him daily. He's also very ill.

Blajeny, a teacher, arrives to help the children as the un-namers of the universe, the Ecthroi, are back this time trying to destroy Charles Wallace's mitochondria. The farandolae limit the rate at which our mitochondria burn fuel and are being interfered with. If their number drops below significant level hydrogen can't be transported and death, results due to energy depletion. Blajeny explains that Charles Wallace is important because one person can swing the balance of the universe.

Blajeny assembles a team that includes Meg, Calvin O'Keefe, Charles Wallace's principal, Proginoskes the cherubim and Sporos a Farandolae. They have to go inside Yada the mitochondrion that was Sporos' birthplace to convince Sporos and his generation to deepen in order for him to sustain life.

This was an exciting story and very different from many I have read. Highly recommended!

A Wind in the Door

By: Nolen Elam

This marvelous book, written by Madeleine L'Engle, is loved by many young readers throughout the country because of its terrific combinations of elements, like combining science fiction with reality drama. An example of this book's ability to combine elements of science fiction and reality drama is displayed when a normal girl and her friends are plunged into an epic space battle inside of little Charles Wallace's mitochondria. Meg, her school teacher, Mr. Jenkins, her friend, Calvin, and her Cheribum companion, Proginoskes, must help Sporos, one of Charles Wallace's forandolae, and the rest of Charles Wallace's farandolae Deepen to save the young boy's life. For the forandolae to Deepen they must set themselves apart from the other young forandolae and become stationary sages within Charles Wallace's body.
Personally, I liked this novel a lot more than some of the other books that I read this summer. I preferred reading A Wind in the Door versus Fifth Chinese Daughter because A Wind in the Door expands your imagination because of its science fiction qualities, like its introduction of new names and new ideas. Fifth Chinese Daughter is a great book, but I prefer the adventures of Madeleine L'Engle's collection of novels. This is in fact one of the best books that I have ever read. I would recommend this novel to anyone interested in science fiction because I would really like to share this great piece of literature with others.