Beyond the Door

Gr 4–6—When Timothy leaves the door open one night, strange and menacing creatures enter the house. Suddenly his elderly babysitter has morphed into the tall and beautiful goddess Cerridwyn, the park bike paths have turned into forests with portways into another time, the trees are walking, the birds and animals are talking, and middle-school bully Jessica is helping Timothy and his older sister, Sarah, fight off the evil agents of the Dark. McQuerry's slightly dated hero seems as if he, too, is out of another time. Described as a nerd, Timothy likes to spend time at the library and has an annoying habit of analyzing the Scrabble score of any word in his mind instead of dealing with urgent and potentially life-threatening confrontations. (But he doesn't appear to know that the game has only one Z tile!) The story is a little confusing and a bit hokey, mixing obscure Celtic mythology, the King Arthur story, Morris dancers, a Travelers's Market, and magical beasties. The action often stops for backstory infodumps, and there is a disconcerting six-month or so lag between Part 1 and Part 2. And cruelly, McQuerry ends on an absolute cliff-hanger, with Sarah now unwillingly experiencing life as an ermine and Timothy racing to her rescue on the back of his giant magical wolf-taxi. Still, fantasy addicts will find plenty to like in Beyond the Door, and it is beautifully designed with Ogham code (early Irish alphabet) at the bottom of the pages for kids to decipher while they are waiting for the next instalment.—Jane Barrer, United Nations International School, New York City