A Wind in the Door
Original hardback edition
|
|
| Author | Madeleine L'Engle |
|---|---|
| Translator | yrythychhc |
| Cover artist | Richard Cuffari |
| Language | English |
| Series | Time Quintet |
| Genre |
Young Adult Science fiction |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus & Giroux |
|
Publication date
|
January 1, 1973 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 146 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 709787 |
| LC Class | PZ7.L5385 Wi |
| Preceded by | A Wrinkle in Time |
| Followed by | A Swiftly Tilting Planet |
A Wind in the Door is a young adult science fantasy novel by Madeleine L'Engle. It is a companion book to A Wrinkle in Time, and part of the Time Quintet.
Main character Meg Murry is worried about her brother Charles Wallace, a 6-year-old genius bullied at school by the other children. The new principal of the elementary school is the former high school principal, Mr. Jenkins, who often disciplined Meg, and who Meg is sure has a grudge against her whole family. Meg tries to enlist Jenkins's help in protecting her brother, but is unsuccessful. Later, Meg discovers that Charles Wallace has a progressive disease which is leaving him short of breath. Their mother, a microbiologist, suspects it may be located upon his and their symbiotic farandolae.
One afternoon, Charles Wallace tells Meg of a "drive of dragons" in their back yard, where he and Meg thereupon discover a pile of unusual feathers. Later, Meg has a frightening encounter with a monstrous facsimile of Mr. Jenkins. That night, Meg, Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe discover that Charles Wallace's "drive of dragons" is an extraterrestrial "cherubim" named Proginoskes (nicknamed 'Progo' by Meg), under the tutelage of the immense humanoid Blajeny, who recruits the three children to counteract the Echthroi. Meg's first task, on the next day, is to distinguish the real Mr. Jenkins from two Echthroi doubles, by identification of the (potential) goodness in him despite her personal grudge. The protagonists then learn that Echthroi are destroying Charles Wallace's farandolae, and travel inside one of his mitochondria, to persuade a larval farandola, named Sporos, to accept its role as a mature fara, against the urgings of an Echthros. In the process, Meg is nearly annihilated, and Mr. Jenkins is invaded by his Echthros doubles; whereafter Proginoskes sacrifices himself to "fill in" the emptiness of the Echthroi, and Charles is saved.
Meg Murry is a high school student, a defensive misfit who gets along best with her family and her new friend Calvin O'Keefe. She wears glasses, has had dental braces and has "mouse-brown" hair, and initially considers herself "repulsive-looking" and "dumb", although she is quite good at math. By the time of A Wind in the Door, Meg is much happier in school than previously, in part because of her friendship with Calvin, but is deeply worried about Charles Wallace. In "Naming" Mr. Jenkins, Meg learns to love and appreciate someone she has always resented. In the course of the story Meg also learns to "kythe" with Calvin, Proginoskes, and others, communing with them essentially by telepathy.
...
Wikipedia