Customer Reviews

Going Through the Gate

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Miss Clough, the aged, frumpy teacher in the county's last one-room school house, has an extraordinary reputation in this rural town. Everyone who has graduated from her 6th grade for over 25 years has experienced something bizarre yet wonderful--never to be discussed afterwards--in a private ceremony behind the school. Down a path and through a special, locked gate, to enter her private region of fantasy. What is this secret ritual--long anticipated but mentioned in tones of hushed awe by the privileged natives?

Becky and her 4 classmates have waited for their initiation into the adult secrets all year, and now, it's Their turn. The great day has come! For their Zoological instruction each pupil has chosen a different animal to study: chickadee, frog, cardinal, swallow, and trout--but only with Miss Clough's permission. In addition they have been training their internal clocks to "go off" on pre-set demand. Bossy Penny is Becky's best friend, but the boys seem to shun each other. Tim, a newcomer to town, is very suspicious of all the secrets whispered about Graduation, and resentful that he had to sacrifice his cat. Mary Margaret is the overburdened sister with too many siblings to nurture. Denied her own childhood, she has little joy in her life and wallows in guilt and is obsessed by sin. The class wavers in loyalty to their admired teacher--is she a witch or just plain crazy? This story hooks the reader instantly, so that we too are desperate to go through the gate along with the class, in order to discover a new world. How will the kids be changed; or is it all a great, two-generational hoax? Delightful Fantasy which will keep you glued to the pages!

This book was one of the shortest we've ever read. Although it lacked the quantity of a masterpiece, it kept our interest because it was unpredictable. The author describes the characters pretty well. The last scene is about graduation experience of five kids who almost worship their teacher. She leads them on an adventure that they will never forget. We especially liked the way the characters' mental states were explained as they go through the change into another reality. The last scene was stunningly brilliant. If you read the book, you'll see our reasoning.

Newton Boys Reading Circle

Albus Dumbledore has nothing on Miss Clough. Down a path behind her one-room school house stands a copper gate. And behind that gate lies the experience of a lifetime -- the experience shared by everyone in town on the day they graduate 6th grade -- the experience that shapes you for the rest of your life. There are no muggles here. Everyone who graduates 6th grade can go through that gate and be changed forever. It doesn't matter if you are new to town, or if your family has been there for generations. The author builds up suspense and then delivers. This is practical magic. I loved it!

I would recomend this book if you like fantesy books written to the piont were the author is telling the story. The book is confusing at first but after a while you understand what it means to "Go Through the Gate". I like how the author writes the story becase no specific character is telling the story.

From the very first page, you'll be hooked into this mystery-fantasy about a group of sixth graders who attend a rural one-room schoolhouse and their special graduation exercise. Told from each of the five students' viewpoints, this "day in the life of" novel lends a deep understanding of what it is to be on the verge of adulthood. The characters have great depth, and exhibit both a childlike fear of the unknown, and the emotional maturity I have often found in this age group. Though not as suspenseful as I would have liked, the mystery of graduation is skillfully revealed as the reader journeys along with the children. A tragedy that occurred twenty-five years ago is dealt with in a thoughtful, sympathetic manner, as are the differences between the children. Each comes to see graduation as a challenge, a release, and a harbinger of hope. As the children learn about Miss Clough, the teacher, who is less capable and in control than they had believed, so too, do they find their own strengths and powers. Before graduation day, they are classmates. Afterwards, they are friends. Going Through the Gate is for anyone who believes in the bond between man and nature. It is a growing up novel for the curious adolescent who feels that there is "something more out there" waited to be discovered.

Going Through the Gate is an interesting book that I liked very much. It is about the sixth-graders in "the last one-room school house in the county." Every year when the sixth-graders graduate they get something extra. That something is an experience that is thought of as impossible by most people. To find out what that experience is, read Going Through the Gate.

This book was overly dramatic and foolish. I felt bored reading it and was often annoyed at the way the author described the events.