Thursday, October 15, 2020

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli

I had never heard of this book and had no idea what it was about, but I checked it out as an e-book as a part of my quest to read all the Newbery award winners. I read this first, before any of the other Newbery winners I'd checked out, because it was incredibly short and I knew it would be fast to get through. Despite it being so short and fast, I thought it packed a lot of punch and had quite a lot of meaning behind the story. It was set in medieval London, while the plague was going through, and follows a boy, Robin, who is struck by some malady (not the plague, I think?) where he can't walk or use his legs any more. His parents have both left him to go fight in a war and serve the queen, and he's supposed to be working as a page at some castle, but he instead is taken up by a priest who helps to nurse him back to health, and he eventually makes a huge difference in a battle against the Welsh and saves the castle and is reunited with his parents. The whole message of the book--and the meaning of the title--is that you just have to keep trying and working through things and eventually a door will open, or a way will open up to you to do what you need to do. There was also the idea of "Anyone can NOT do it," which Robin thought when he thought "I can't do this!" I really liked that idea and I think that's a great message for a kids' book. I also really liked the setting of medieval England and picturing that time and era. 

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