Amazon.com Review
Teens are always fascinated by the idea of running life on their own, free of parental interference. But what happens when reality sets in--when the laundry piles up, the sink overflows, you run out of money for food, and your little sister starts getting very sick? In
A Door Near Here, winner of the annual Delacorte Prize for Best First Young Adult Novel, Heather Quarles shows readers that "no parents" is no fun. The mother of the four Donovan kids has taken to her bed and bottle, only stumbling out of her pigsty of a room occasionally in search of more vodka. Katharine, the eldest at 15, tries to keep her brother and sisters clean and fed and in classes, but things are slipping out of her control--especially when 8-year-old Alisa decides to run away from school in search of the kingdom of Narnia. Katharine can't turn to their cold and selfish father for help, so the four siblings cling to their secrets--terrified that an adult, seeing beneath the appearances they are desperately trying to uphold, will alert Social Services. When a kindly teacher begins to ask questions, Katharine panics and lashes out with an accusation that could well destroy this concerned man--only to be met with an act of breathtaking forgiveness. Both teens and adults will find the poignant resolution of this compelling novel utterly engrossing. (Ages 12 and older)
--Patty Campbell
From Publishers Weekly
At 15, Katherine is in charge of the house and her three younger siblings?the children's alcoholic, divorced mother has been in bed for weeks and weeks, and there is no outside adult to whom they can turn for help. They have good reason to conceal their troubles?while the three oldest children might be sent to their father in another state, the youngest, eight-year-old Alisa (whose father is unknown), would almost certainly be placed in foster care. New problems (broken plumbing, dwindling food supplies, forced absences from school) crop up as quickly as old ones are solved, and, to complicate matters even more, Alisa seems to be drifting away from reality as she endlessly searches for the door that will lead her into the enchanted world of Narnia. Tension escalates when a teacher sniffs out a bit of the children's predicament and threatens to intervene. Ironically, the teacher turns out to be the one person the children can trust during their most serious crisis. While the teacher's long wait before alerting authorities is not entirely plausible, the characterizations, especially Alisa's, are otherwise compelling and complex. The contemporary setting and inventive solutions to sticky conflicts (i.e., how can the children draw money from their mother's account?) keep the material fresh, and Katherine's candid narrative voice joins with skillful pacing to mark an especially auspicious first novel. Ages 12-up.
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