Does anybody remember the old reading books they used to pass out in elementary school? It was a big, fat, textbook sized chunk of awesomeness that the teachers handed out every year, along with math and language books. The reading books were stuffed full of poems — mostly boring — and stories and snippets of books that were intended to broaden our horizons.Mostly they probably did. I don’t remember much of them. I was that nerdy kid who took the book home and read it cover to cover in the first few weeks of school and then thought it was boring the rest of the year when the teacher assigned us to read things from it.Except for two things. I remember clearly two distinct pieces of literature that I found in reading books. Neither of them were being used, probably because they had something good in them. Our school was giving away old reading books to anybody who wanted them. I’m pretty sure I was the only one who took some home.These were old books. Ones that hadn’t been used in years. I took two of the same book home to share with my brothers. We found in those books the poem by A. A. Milne about the Knight Whose Armor Didn’t Squeak and I love that poem still.The fascinating things was that, printed in the pages or one of those reading books (though not the other, even though they were identical in every other way), was the entire text of Alexander Key’s The Forgotten Door.It was nearly a hundred pages long with illustrations and everything.Alexander Key also created the source from which Disney made their movie Return to Witch Mountain — which, despite it’s name, is not a sequel. The movie is awesome and deals with many of the same themes that The Forgotten Door does.I didn’t know any of that at the time. I didn’t know who Alexander Key was. I had not seen Return to Witch Mountain. I just read the first page of the story, expecting to skip it. After all, who wants to read a story that’s a hundred pages? (I read plenty of longer books, when I’m reading a story I like it short.)I was completely entranced in the first paragraph.I read breathless as Little Jon stumbled through the woods, his memory gone and his world far away.The preaching about people being kind of monstrous is a little heavy handed now. The overt references to nasty people comes across as a little cynical and there is definitely a message in this book. However, all of that doesn’t matter because this book is one of the greatest.It’s not a book of action. It’s not a book of confrontation. Little Jon wants to avoid those things and Alexander Key seems to be arguing that he is better off for it. This is a book that favors learning and growth over fighting and arguing.Little Jon has fallen through a portal into our world. He lost his memory when he fell so he doesn’t know how to get home. Using his ability to read minds he befriends a family that will be kind to him and help him. In the process he runs afoul of racist and bigoted country folk that see his presence as an opportunity for nastiness.The family that Little Jon adopts — Thomas and Mary Bean and their two children — are the only nice people in the book. As a child this made perfect sense. Of course all the people are mean. As an adult I realized that there are actually reasons for that. Little Jon picks up little bits about them that drop hints as to why they hate him, or hate Thomas Bean. It’s not much and it’s hardly a whole back story — which would have turned this into a Tom Clancy novel — but it’s enough to let the reader know that these aren’t just an angry mob of backwoods country folk that are intolerant of different people. Some of them are that. Some of them have traumatic or personal issues in their past that keep them from seeing how bad their decisions are.Little Jon comes from a world where much of our technology isn’t needed. He knows nothing of automobiles and weapons but he is familiar with television and radio (this was written in the 1950’s so excuse the lack of computers and internet). The reason for that is his people’s ability to read minds. When Thomas and Mary Bean discover his ability they jump immediately to the conclusion that of course, if people could read minds they would stop having wars because there would be nothing to fight over.I found that to be such a non-cynical view that it kind of shocked me momentarily. In most stories about reading minds it is terrible. It is better to not know the little things that people sensor from their own speech each day. I suppose Key is showing us the end result. If all of us could read minds then perhaps we would learn to only think the kind thoughts as well as say them. I imagine the beginning of that kind of world would be pretty awful for a while, though.I find it completely engrossing to this day. I love it like I love few other books. If you haven’t read The Forgotten Door you need to. It really is that good.
By the author of Escape to Witch Mountain, The Forgotten Door is something I stumbled across when looking for something I'd actually read when I was younger.Jon has lost his memory, after a fall of some kind he's woken up in unfamiliar woods and needs to find help to recover and make his way back home. But the people he's coming across are unusual, can't do the things that he can do, and find everything about him, from his appearance and clothes to the way he talks, unusual, perhaps dangerous. The strange place he finds himself is called EARTH! Is he from another planet? The future?Key raises many of the important issues of social science fiction - namely the need for compassion in confrontation of the unknown - in a way that young readers will comprehend. Its a simple story, some larger-than-life touches of government paranoia, with the villains being mostly unpleasant, greedy neighbors and the heroes a family. Everything is on an understandable scale.If the book had any failings, it was the rushed ending and the inability of the author to come up with any other satisfactory conclusion than (view spoiler)[having the family trip off to wonderland with Jon as opposed to, I don't know, making the world a better place? (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about The Forgotten Door (1986)?
Really liked this book, someone gave it to me as a gift. I always love reading older young adult/kids' books anyway, but this was a memorable one. I was tickled to read in the back of the book that Mr. Key lives/lived in the mountains of Western North Carolina, which is pretty much where I grew up. I also like the environmental spin on it. I think it's a great thing to introduce to kids as they're growing up, to start them on the path of thinking in terms of conservation and harmony in their later lives.
—Dalton Adams
Sometimes when I'm reading or watching a great movie, I get sucked into the story and when it's over and I come up for air, it's as if the world had stopped those hours spent enjoying myself. This is how I felt the first time I read the Forgotten Door. I was drawn into the story. It felt as if I had been surrounded by silk, as if in a web, but I was comfortable. It was quiet. The Forgotten Door had an impact on me as far as justice and family loyalty is concerned. It was almost surreal. I even loved the ending. I read that portion of the book several times, feeling peace and acceptance. I also felt sadness and great loss because I couldn't become a part of this new world.
—Shonda
This is a wonderful story about a boy from an Earth-like planet who has fallen through a door into our own world. Little Jon is able to communicate with animals and can read people's minds. He has no concept of money, war, theft, automobiles, and many other things we take for granted (but he is very familiar with books!).Jon is taken in by a good, sympathetic family who shelter and protect him and want to help him find his way home, while he is threatened by others who are afraid of him because he is different and "unnatural."It's an exciting, magical tale of adventure that has a strong moral and ethical basis without being preachy. Highly recommended for kids and young-at-heart adults.
—Sheila Beaumont
