Publication Date: October 23, 2000 | Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up
When Joey Finney was 12, he and his family went camping near Smokewater Lake-and Joey vanished. Now, two years later, he has reappeared. But something's stopping him from settling back in to his old life. Joey still looks 12. He feels sick all the time and hears voices in his head. No one believes him when he tells the truth: Joey was abducted by aliens...
"A story that young X-Files fans will snap up." -Kirkus Reviews
Awards:
( Nutmeg Children's Book Award Master List ( Sequoyah Young Adult Award Master List
Grade 4-7AThe last thing 12-year-old Joey remembers is that he got up in the middle of the night and headed to the restrooms just down the path from where his tent was pitched. The next thing he knows he's in the hospital after collapsing in a convenience store, being told by everyone how glad they are to have him back and that he's been gone for over two years. Joey can't tell them where he might have been or why he hasn't grown at all. Then the seizures start and Joey begins to remember what happened to him on that summer night. By chance, he gets an e-mail through one of the electronic bulletin boards for missing children that his mother has been on, and he tracks down a couple of college students who have a theory about what may have happened to himAone that his returning memories supportAthat he was abducted by aliens. The action and resolution of the story are fairly compressed and taut, and as for the believabilityAwho's to say?Awe're talking alien abduction here, but the details are convincingly written. A few scenes with Joey's old best friend, who is now too cool to talk to him, and his now bigger, younger brother add the right pangs of adolescent angst. But one must question the author's wisdom in allowing her young character to pedal off on his bike to meet someone he's met on-line, purposefully concealing it from his parents. Although this book is a quick and exciting read, be aware that this one element can all too often lead to tragedy in the real world.ACarrie Schadle, New York Public Library Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Gr. 5^-8. Joey Finney is the boy on the milk carton who disappeared at age 12 when he was camping with his family and his best friend near Smokewater Lake in the Allegheny Mountains. He comes back 27 months later, but he does not look a day older than when he disappeared. It turns out he was abducted by aliens and time had stopped for him inside their parallel world. Even more interesting than the time-travel mechanics is the drama of Joey's return home and his struggle to fit in at school. What is it like to be fast-forwarded through life? Does he belong in ninth grade or in seventh? His bratty younger brother is now bigger than Joey; his best friend is ashamed to be seen with him. The suspense builds to a surprising climax that leaves you wondering: If time can stop, can it also go backward? Hazel Rochman--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Nancy Butts has had her head stuck in a book ever since she learned to read--and she's been writing stories for just as long. Her younger sisters still tease her about how she used to hide out in the coat closet just to find a quiet place to read, and even today she is still looking for the perfect sanctuary where she can sneak away to write.
She published her first poem at age ten, and decided after reading Madeleine L'Engle's 'A Wrinkle in Time' in fifth grade that she wanted to be a writer, too. But she never thought she was good enough, so by the sixth grade she decided to be an astronomer instead: and after that a lawyer, Congresswoman, spy, and finally a doctor. And if she hadn't gone to Duke University, where she learned that in order to be premed she had to hang out in chemistry lectures with 500 other students, she might be a doctor today. Instead, she took a seminar in Zen Buddhism and decided that spending all her time talking about big ideas in small classes with bearded professors was what college was supposed to be about. She switched her major to religion--with a minor in Russian of all things--happily haunted the stacks of the college library for four years (even better than a coat closet!), and when she graduated, had absolutely zero idea what she wanted to do with her life.
So she sat down, read all 88 Agatha Christie mystery novels in two months, took a job in a lab, got married, moved to Georgia, and spent the next six years thinking that she really should have applied to medical school after all. Then she tried PA school instead, had an early mid-life crisis, and when someone asked her what she saw herself doing in ten years, she suddenly remembered what she had known back in fifth grade: she wanted to write. She quit school, and within a few months she had landed a job as a reporter at a small-town newspaper. She spent the next eleven years working there, writing several stories each week and winning awards. But once her son was born she secretly started to write her first children's book--the story that ultimately became her debut novel, 'Cheshire Moon.'
Of course it wasn't that easy. It took her years to finish that first book, then four months to find a publisher. When she learned that her editor was the same man who had also edited her girlhood idol, Madeleine L'Engle, Nancy felt as if she had finally found what she was meant to do. "Cheshire Moon' was published and won the respect of members of the deaf community for its portrayal of a young deaf girl who will communicate only in Sign. This book was soon followed by the science fiction novel 'The Door in the Lake,' which Nancy wrote so that her son might actually be interested in reading it. (He took it to school after it was published and shared it with his friends, so she thinks she succeeded.) 'Door' was an ALA Quick Pick and a Scholastic Book Club selection, and was even "translated" into the Queen's English for a British edition.
Since then Nancy spends much of her time working as a creative writing teacher. Some of the people whose books she's had the privilege of shepherding into the world are Monica Roe, author of the YA novel 'Thaw'; Alberto Hazan, author of the YA fantasy series 'The League of Freaks'; and Jennifer Lundquist, author of the forthcoming middle grade novel, 'Seeing Cinderella.' Nancy is also a freelance writer and editor. She has published several books for the direct-to-school education market, and is the editor of a how-to book on revision entitled 'Write it Right!' by the author Sandra Asher.
Somewhere during these years she also managed to land a spot as a contestant on the TV game show "Jeopardy" and was a one-day champion.
But writing fiction for kids continues to be her passion, and she is working hard on another middle grade novel set in a sleepy Southern town much like the one where she lives: only with more ghosts.
There is just one ghost in the 130-year-old Victorian cottage where Nancy lives and works: one humming ghost, and far too few electric outlets for the Apple laptops which are her auxiliary brain. When she's not teaching, editing, or trying to carve out time for her own writing, Nancy is an avid Nordic walker; and she also likes to grow herbs, make quilts, knit miles and miles of scarves, play the mountain dulcimer and Finnish kantele, be the Mac tech support person for everyone she knows, and tend to her slightly neurotic Newfoundland dog, Yukon.
The book is about a 12 year old kid named Joey. Joey and his family go on a vacation near a lake. One night in his room before he went to sleep, he heard voices in his head. The voice said,"There's a door in the lake!" It repeated in his head until the sun came up. Joey was curious about this unusual thing in the water. It was really colorful. Joey gets abducted in a blink of an eye. When he opens his eyes, he realizes that he was abducted by aliens. I'm not really a sci-fi fan but this book was ok. I learned more about aliens in this book. If you're a sci-fi fan, it's your book.
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The book is about a 12 year old kid named Joey. Joey and his family go on a vacation near a lake. They stayed in a cabin real close to the lake. One night in his room before he went to sleep, he heard voices in his head. The voice said," There's a door in the lake!" It repeated in his head until the sun came up. Joey was curious about this door, so he goes to the lake and sees this unusual thing in the water. It was really colorful. Joey goes to it. He hears a strange noise and Joey gets abducted in a blink of an eye. When he opens his eyes, he realizes that he was abducted by aliens. I'm not really a sci-fi fan but this book was ok. I learned more about aliens in this book. If you're a sci-fi fan, it's your book.
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This review is from: The Door In the Lake (Mass Market Paperback)
A kid named Joey shows up in a store and realizes that he has been missing for two years. The strange thing is he does not look a day older that the day he dissapeard. Now Joey is faced with alot of decisions,(does he fit in?) Joey starts getting hints through dreams he has during seizers he has been having. He finds some information that leads him to believe he was abducted by aliens. Joey is on a big adventure that leads to a unexpected ending!
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