Beyond the Door

Adele Ashby was the former editor of Canadian Materials for Schools and Libraries.

In these post-Bettleheim days, many people have come to regard fantasy literature as an appropriate vehicle to help children deal with conflicts and fears. Take one writer, Jacqueline Nugent, who obviously shares these views, add a boy who resents having been abandoned by his father and a girl who cannot accept the fact that she is crippled, plus a host of other characters, all with problems of one sort or another — the result could be a classic, such as Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, or it could be a disaster. Unfortunately, in the case of Beyond the Door, it is the latter rather than the former. The plot creaks under the weight of the psychological baggage it is expected to support, and the characters have no lives of their own. Luc and Iris escape from a fire in a movie house through a door that leads them to a strange world inhabited by loonies, questors, red and yellow hairs, bird men, Saint Toe, and twin sisters, one of whom runs the Loonie Bin, while the other provides guidance to the children who must learn to deal with their problems before they are allowed to return home. Not recommended.