Beyond the Doors

Gr 4–7—The four Rothbaum siblings, ranging in age from first grade to middle school, are left without a responsible parent after a family disaster. (Their dad is in a coma, and their mom is missing.) When the continually sobbing social worker finally finds a long-lost, eccentric aunt, the kids settle into their new home. The house is odd, to say the least. There's a drawbridge and not a single door. The siblings decide to investigate the mysterious disappearance of their grandparents and rescue them, using an intimidating time travel machine. Soon, piles and piles of doors begin to fill their aunt's house, with more supplied every day by a hilarious delivery man. The doors, like the time machine, are portals to a specific person's memory of an event. This story provides an interesting look at perspective. The protagonists must locate the correct door leading to the exact memory in which the grandparents are trapped. But as a memory is entered again and again, it begins to "spoil." The story gets slightly confusing with all the switching among memories to discover the right one. However, the characters are well developed, the plot intriguing, and the pace well suited to middle grade readers. Minor characters add realism as well as laughs.