A Wind in the Door (A Wrinkle in Time Quintet)

Description

The second book in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time Quintet. When Charles Wallace falls ill, Meg, Calvin, and their teacher, Mr. Jenkins, will have to shuttle inside C.W. to make him well, and save the universe from the evil Echthros.

“This is breathtaking entertainment.” ―School Library Journal, starred review

Every time a star goes out, another Echthros has won a battle.

It is November. When Meg comes home from school, Charles Wallace tells her he saw dragons in the twin’s vegetable garden. That night Meg, Calvin and C.W. go to the vegetable garden to meet the Teacher (Blajeny) who explains that what they are seeing isn’t a dragon at all, but a cherubim named Proginoskes. It turns out that C.W. is ill and that Blajeny and Proginoskes are there to make him well – by making him well, they are going to keep the balance of the universe in check and save it from the evil Echthros.

Meg, Calvin and Mr. Jenkins (grade school principal) will have to shuttle inside C.W. to have this battle and save Charles’ life as well as the balance of the universe.

Praise for A Wind in the Door:

“Complex concepts of space and time are handled well for young readers, and the creator creates a suspenseful, life-and-death drama that is believably of cosmic significance. Complex and rich in mystical religious insights, this is breathtaking entertainment.” ―School Library Journal, starred review

Books by Madeleine L’Engle

A Wrinkle in Time Quintet
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wind in the Door
A Rapidly Tilting Planet
Many Waters
An Acceptable Time

A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Madeleine L’Engle; adapted & illustrated by Hope Larson: A graphic novel adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s ground-breaking science fiction and fantasy classic.

Intergalactic P.S. 3 by Madeleine L’Engle; illustrated by Hope Larson: Visit the world of A Wrinkle in Time in this standalone story!

The Austin Family Chronicles
Meet the Austins (Volume 1)
The Moon by Night (Volume 2)
The Young Unicorns (Volume 3)
A Ring of Endless Light (Volume 4) A Newbery Honor book!
Troubling a Star (Volume 5)

The Polly O’Keefe books
The Arm of the Starfish
Dragons in the Waters
A House Like a Lotus

And Both Were Young

Camilla

The Joys of Love

“There are dragons in the twins’ vegetable garden,” announces six-year-old Charles Wallace Murry in the opening sentence of The Wind in the Door. His older sister, Meg, doubts it. She figures he’s seen something abnormal, but dragons–a “dollop of dragons,” a “drove of dragons,” even a “drive of dragons”–seem highly unlikely. As it turns out, Charles Wallace is right about the dragons–though the sea of eyes (merry eyes, wise eyes, ferocious eyes, kitten eyes, dragon eyes, opening and closing) and wings (in constant motion) is if truth be told a benevolent cherubim (of a singularly plural sort) named Proginoskes who has come to help save Charles Wallace from a serious illness.

In her usual masterful way, Madeleine L’Engle jumps seamlessly from a child’s world of liverwurst and cream cheese sandwiches to deeply sinister, cosmic battles between good and evil. Children will revel in the delectably chilling details–including hideous scenes in which a school principal named Mr. Jenkins is impersonated by the Echthroi (the evil forces that tear skies, snuff out light, and darken planets). When it becomes clear that the Echthroi are putting Charles Wallace in danger, the only logical course of action is for Meg and her dear friend Calvin O’Keefe to turn into small enough to go inside Charles Wallace’s body–into one of his mitochondria–to see what’s going incorrect with his farandolae. In an illuminating flash on the interconnectedness of all things and the relativity of size, we realize that the tiniest problem can have mammoth, even intergalactic ramifications. Can this intrepid group voyage through time and space and muster all their strength of character to save Charles Wallace? It’s an exhilarating, enlightening, suspenseful journey that no child will have to miss.

The other books of the Time quartet, continuing the adventures of the Murry family, are A Wrinkle in Time; A Rapidly Tilting Planet, which won the American Book Award; and Many Waters. (Ages 9 and older) –Karin Snelson