The Door Within: The Door Within Trilogy - Book One [Paperback]

Wayne Thomas Batson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 2007 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Door Within Trilogy (Book 1)

Now includes THE LOST CHAPTERS, four previously unpublished chapters with author commentary and editor notes!

Aidan Thomas is miserable. And it's much more than the strange nightmares he's been having. Just when life seemed to be coming together for Aidan, his parents suddenly move the family across the country to take care of his wheelchair-bound grandfather. When strange events begin to occur, Aidan is drawn into his grandfather's basement where he discovers three ancient scrolls and an invitation to another world.

No longer confined to the realm of his own imagination, Aidan embarks on an adventure where he joins them in the struggle between good and evil. With the fate of two worlds hanging in the balance, Aidan faces Paragory, the eternal enemy. Will Aidan be willing to risk everything and trust the unseen hand of the one true King? The answer comes from The Door Within.

This new edition of The Door Within is designed like the Director's Cut DVDs of favorite movies and includes deleted chapters, extended scenes, author and editor commentary, and even new bonus adventure stories written especially for fans.

What to expect in The Door Within, Lost Chapters Edition:

• Deleted Chapter: Original Chapter 1, where Aidan learns that his family will leave their lifetime home in Maryland to move to Colorado. And something startling happens in Aidan's room.
• Deleted Chapter: Original Chapter 2, where readers meet Robby, Aidan's best friend, and follow he and Aidan on a local adventure.
• Deleted Chapter: Original Chapter 3, where readers will begin to understand Aidan's fear of the underground. Something alarming dwells in Robby's basement!
• Deleted Chapter: Original Chapter 4, where readers witness Aidan's departure from Maryland. If you've even had to move and left dear friends behind, you will SO connect to this chapter.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9–When his family moves to Colorado to care for his ailing grandfather, Aidan thinks his life is ruined until he discovers three ancient scrolls in the man's basement. They tell of a world where the knights of Alleble fight to keep the warriors of Paragory from gaining dominion over the Realm. When Aidan reads the last line of the scrolls, Believe and enter, he is swept into this strange land. His role there is to become the 12th knight of the King's Elder Guard. Their mission is to travel to the kingdom of Mithegard and convince its sovereign not to sign a treaty with Paragory. Aidan discovers that the people in the Realm, called Glimpses, have doubles that exist in his world. A map of the Realm is provided, as is a character guide with pronunciation key. The concept in this first of a projected trilogy is intriguing and the plot moves along at a steady pace. Some characters lack development, but several of them are engaging, especially the swordmaiden Gwenne and an underground serpentine creature named Falon. Give this title to readers who have finished the current book in D. J. MacHale's Pendragon series (S & S) but who might not be ready for J. R. R. Tolkien or David Eddings's Belgariad books (Ballantine).–Lisa Prolman, Greenfield Public Library, MA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-7. The first in a projected trilogy begins in Aidan Thomas' new home; his family has moved to help his ailing grandfather. Aidan is unhappy about almost everything, but life really turns upside down when he discovers several ancient scrolls in his grandfather's basement. In short order, he finds himself opening "the door within"; on the opposite side is a world of noble kings and treacherous knights, and the inevitable struggle between good and evil. In the frame story about sacrifice and redemption, Batson has borrowed from C. S. Lewis, but the book's Christian overtones are not nearly as well woven as those in Lewis' work. There's plenty of fantastical adventure tethered to right and wrong here, and Aidan is a likable enough hero, though he seems more like a boy of 11 or 12 than the high-school kid he is. The writing is often workmanlike, but many readers will want the book for its religious core. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson; Lost Chapter edition (April 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400310113
• ISBN-13: 978-1400310111
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (123 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #315,917 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wayne Thomas Batson was born in Seabrook, MD in 1968. During the early years he tortured his older brothers and sisters, doing those things that only younger siblings can do to get on your nerves.
He attended Gabriel DuVal Senior High School and wrote this for his Yearbook
Senior Goals: To become a professional writer or artist. During the high school and early college years, he played lead guitar for a rock band called "Contagious." They were catchy, but apparently not enough to get a record deal.

Having completed the rigorous Holmes English Literature Curriculum, he graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1991. In 1996, he received his first graduate degree in Counseling. He has continued his studies with 36 credit hours of graduate-level Reading courses.

Wayne Thomas Batson has spent the last fifteen years teaching Reading and English to middle schools students. He pioneered the active instruction of Strategic Reading in Anne Arundel County and has written Reading and English Curricula for Anne Arundel County, Carroll County, and Howard County Public Schools. Most recently, he helped develop the Challenge Reading Curriculum for advanced readers in Howard County, Maryland.
Wayne Thomas Batson lives in Eldersburg with his beautiful wife of eleven years and his four wonderful young children. Besides dividing his time between family, teaching, and writing, he likes to read, golf, play PS2, travel to the beach, play electric guitar, and create 3D artwork.

Wayne Thomas Batson is the Bestselling author of five adventure novels including the fantasy epic Door Within Trilogy and the pirate duo Isle of Swords and Isle of Fire. A middle school Reading and English teacher for 18 years, Batson loves to challenge--and be challenged by--his students. So, when he began writing stories to supplement the school district's curriculum, it was his students who taught their teacher a lesson. Batson's students were so taken by one of the stories that, over a thirteen year span, they pushed him to make it into a full-length novel. That story became The Door Within. Since then, Batson's students continue to be his frontline editors. Says Batson, "Two things you can count on from middle school students: Intelligence and Honesty. Kids are so much more perceptive than a lot of us 'Big Folk' give them credit for. And when something's not write in the story, they'll tell you about in very clear terms." Batson is teaming up with author and friend Christopher Hopper for a new book series, The Berinfell Prophecies. The first book, Curse of the Spider King, hit bookstores in October 2009. It promises to turn the traditional "portal fantasy" on its head, posing the question: What would happen if the fantasy came to us? Batson believes his books appeal to so many kids and adults because, at a deep level, we all long to do something that matters, and we all dream of another world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars There are passages and doors and realms that lie unseen..., November 12, 2005

By 

Rebekah Martin (MI,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Door Within: The Door Within Trilogy - Book One (Hardcover)

Having moved away from his best friend to a different state so that his parents could take care of his grandfather, Aidan Thomas is seriously bored. There are no other kids in the area apparently and the only thing he has to do is explore his new surroundings. In a venture down to his house's basement, Aidan comes across historical documents that seem almost too real to be fantasy. Though both his parents dismiss them as just stories, a fairy tale, Aidan chooses to believe that are indeed true- a belief that allows him to go through The Door Within and into a different world.

Arriving into the land he had read about, Aidan finds himself chosen as the Twelfth Knight, selected by the King himself to defend their land of Alleble against Paragor. Paragor had once been the King's own Sentinel but in his greed for more power and knowledge, he turned on King. Accepting his position to fight against this evil, Aidan is quickly trained, along with the other eleven Knights, by the King's new Sentinel, Captain Valithor, in preparation for their future mission.

The Door Within has strong allegorical parallels with Biblical stories, which is fairly obvious throughout the book. The characters in the book were not quite as developed as I felt they could have been, but they still had a realistic feel to them. Overall, however, this book was an enjoyable read. The Door Within is a great beginning to, what looks to be, a well-written trilogy.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Teen Read!, April 12, 2006

By 

Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Central - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Door Within: The Door Within Trilogy - Book One (Hardcover)

Aidan Thomas had the pressures of high school beat. Aidan knew he would never be that popular kid, but somehow he had managed to become the best friend of that perfect, all-american boy, and Aidan was happy to live in the shadow of his friend in order to be accepted by the popular kids. But all that changes, when his Grampin gets ill and he must move away from his best friend, and worse yet, he could no longer live in the popular shadow of his friend. Living at his Grampin's during the summer without friends was terribly boring, that is, until the scrolls appear. The scrolls lead Aidan to have faith in the truth and reality of the realm that lies beyond The Door Within. With the scrolls help, Aidan enters into another world of knights and kings, where he is forced to find that he is more capable than he would have ever expected.

The Door Within is one of those books you just do not want to end. Although the reader forms a bond with a few of the characters, the real bond for the reader is to the realm beyond The Door Within. Wayne Thomas Batson does a wonderful job of transporting the reader into the realm's land and cultures, enticing the reader to want to stay in the lands longer. The Door Within will be added to the top of my list for teen readers. It can be enjoyed by any teen, but Christian teens will see more into the King than others will.

One extra addition beyond a normal review is that this is one of the best manufactured hardcovers I have seen. Hats off to the publisher, Tommy Nelson, for doing a superb job in the production of this book. Everything from the dustjacket to the papers used for binding the hardcover and within the book are excellent.

CSFFC Ratings:
Teen Friendly: A (Written for children/teen readers)
Christian Message: A (Although allegorical, it is strong and wonderfully done)
Crude or Profane Language: A (none)
Drug or Alcohol: A (none)
Sexual Content: A (none)
Writing: A

Leathel Grody
Author of "The Foundations of Hope Trilogy"
Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Central Reviewer

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good read for children, August 18, 2006

By 

K. Weber "melydia" (Springfield, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Door Within: The Door Within Trilogy - Book One (Hardcover)

This is the story of Aidan, a rather emotional 15-year-old boy who finds some old scrolls in his grandfather's basement that lead him to The Realm, a fantastical land of knights, unicorns, and dragons. I spent much of the book with a nagging sense of deja vu. About halfway through I realized that this story was more or less The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe sans talking animals. It was all there: the Other Land discovered by a child but disbelieved by all their elders except for the old man who owned the house; the semi-medieval setting; and the heavy Christian allegory, without which the story doesn't make a whole lot of sense (if you don't recognize King Eliam as Jesus right away, you'll spend much of the book wondering how he can be responsible for so many things he's not present for). And despite its thickness, it also is unquestionably a children's book. The characters are simple, the action is straightforward, and there are even potential vocabulary words in italics (portcullis, gauntlet, etc.). However, I'm looking at it through adult eyes. I'm sure this would be a very enjoyable book for a child, and it is in fact quite reminiscent of some of my favorite books from my youth. The description is very detailed without dragging, most of the characters are charmingly written, and the story is fun. I'm curious to see how the rest of the trilogy plays out.