A Wind in the Door (The Time Quartet)

A Wind In The Door is afantastic adventure story involving Meg Murry, her smallbrother Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe, thechief characters of A Wrinkle InTime. The seed from which the story grows is therather ordinary situation of Charles Wallace'shaving difficulty in adapting to school. He isextremely bright, so much so that he gets punched arounda lot for being different. He is alsostrangely, seriously ill (mitochondritis -- thedestruction of farandolae, minute creature of themitochondria in the blood). Determined to helpCharles Wallace in school, Meg pays a visit to hisprincipal, Mr. Jenkins, a dry, cold man with whom Megherself has had unfortunate run-ins. The interviewwith Mr. Jenkins goes badly and Meg worriedlyreturns home to find Charles Wallace waiting for her. There are, he announces, dragons inthe twins' vegetable garden. Or there were. They'vemoved to the north pasture now.

Dragons ? Not really, but an entity, a beingstranger by far than dragons; and the encounter with thisalien creature is only the first step that leadsMeg, Calvin, and Mr. Jenkins out into galacticspace, and then into the unimaginably small world of amitochondrion. And, at last, safely, triumphantly,home.