Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Forgotten Door
    The Forgotten Door
    The Forgotten Door
    Ebook123 pages2 hours

    The Forgotten Door

    By Alexander Key

    4.5/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    “Well written fantasy with strong character emphasis and empathy” from the author of the sci-fi classic Escape to Witch Mountain (Kirkus Reviews).

    At night, Little Jon’s people go out to watch the stars. Mesmerized by a meteor shower, he forgets to watch his step and falls through a moss-covered door to another land: America. He awakes hurt, his memory gone, sure only that he does not belong here. Captured by a hunter, Jon escapes by leaping six feet over a barbed-wire fence. Hungry and alone, he staggers through the darkness and is about to be caught when he is rescued by a kind family known as the Beans. They shelter him, feed him, and teach him about his new home. In return, he will change their lives forever.
     
    Although the Beans are kind to Little Jon, the townspeople mistrust the mysterious visitor. But Jon has untold powers, and as he learns to harness them, he will show his newfound friends that they have no reason to be afraid. 
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateJul 29, 2014
    ISBN9781497652637
    Author

    Alexander Key

    Alexander Key (1904–1979) started out as an illustrator before he began writing science fiction novels for young readers. He has published many titles, including Sprockets: A Little Robot, Mystery of the Sassafras Chair, and The Forgotten Door, winner of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. Key’s novel Escape to Witch Mountain was adapted for film in 1975, 1995, and 2009. 

    Read more from Alexander Key

    Related to The Forgotten Door

    Related ebooks

    Children's For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      View And Manage Your IPhone Widgets

      Aug 15, 2019

      Although it’s fair to say that many of us overlook widgets, they can be very useful. By grabbing snippets of information from apps and services or allowing easy access to a specific feature, they’re invariably productive or fun. Apple thinks so, whic

      1 min read

    • Article

      Change Of Heart

      May 7, 2020

      Change Of Heart
      7 min read

    • Article

      To Save Arrhinsal

      Sep 1, 2021

      TOLIN CRAWLED FORWARD, staying alert. All around, the dense, wiry thickets of the hedge were strangely silent. That usually meant danger, when the green tangle of thorns should be cheery with the songs of finches, the dusky clucking of hedge hens. On

      8 min read

    • Article

      Ursula K. Le Guin

      Jun 15, 2018

      He was thinking of Lookfar, abandoned long ago, beached on the sands of Selidor. Little of her would be left by now, a plank or two down in the sand maybe, a bit of driftwood on the western sea. As he drifted near sleep he began to remember sailing t

      15 min read

    • Article

      Hernan Diaz, Fiction

      Mar 20, 2019

      Hernan Diaz, Fiction
      2 min read

    • Article

      Equinox

      May 18, 2022

      In this strange world, where identities change with the rising and setting of the sun, supernatural forces are at work – and they’re causing trouble… St Leonars prison was an appropriately imposing building. It rose out of the surrounding shacks and

      5 min read

    • Article

      Fitting In

      Oct 1, 2021

      Fitting In
      6 min read

    • Article

      To Save Arrhinsal

      Nov 1, 2021

      Tolin lives on Arrhinsal, an island that floats in the sky two miles above the land below. One day, while hunting in the maze of tunnels that run through the island’s thick hedges, he encounters a girl who, her sword raised, has turned to face a huge

      6 min read

    • Article

      Practicing

      Mar 15, 2018

      This would have been her favorite season in the Allegheny woods. The shadows of the trees were rickety, and the wind had sap in its scent. But last week, Ty had left; now one day decayed into the next. Their house was abandoned. Only their father, si

      18 min read

    • Article

      Concerning The Future Of Souls

      Mar 19, 2024

      As a toddler she had caused a sensation in her family when she announced she wanted to live in a little hole like the ant. Not an ant, the ant. This might have been misheard. She was an easygoing child, not particularly thoughtful and stubbornly inar

      13 min read

    • Article

      The Buried Moon

      Oct 1, 2022

      The Buried Moon
      3 min read

    • Article

      New Land

      Oct 13, 2017

      New Land
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Swan

      Aug 27, 2021

      The Swan
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ice Blue

      Dec 5, 2023

      Even inside the plane the cold had registered, along with a deadening of all sound. But the glacial silence that awaits him outside is something else entirely. No attempt to imagine it could have prepared him. It occurs to him that he’s done well to

      15 min read

    • Article

      Perfect Prose II

      May 15, 2020

      Perfect Prose II
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Thing In The Woods

      Jun 8, 2022

      The Thing In The Woods
      4 min read

    • Article

      Shula And The Sun

      Oct 13, 2017

      Shula And The Sun
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Quick Thrill

      May 20, 2021

      A Quick Thrill
      4 min read

    • Article

      Excerpt: 'The Last Thing You Surrender'

      Feb 10, 2019

      In this abridged excerpt from "The Last Thing You Surrender" by columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr., elements of the all-black 761st Tank Battalion make a grisly discovery and Pvt. Luther Hayes, whose parents were murdered before his eyes by a white mob whe

      3 min read

    • Article

      New World

      Aug 2, 2018

      New World
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Forgotten Door

    4.5/5

    16 ratings10 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      One of the first science fiction stories I read. Re-read a couple of years ago and was impressed even though I've read hundreds of sf since.
    • 5/5
      I loved it as a teenager. As a member of the original Star Trek generation, it elicited a growing feeling in me that people need to get along, treat each other generously and kindly, and work towards the betterment of all. And that includes animals living peacefully in Nature. There will always be things that we don't understand --- yet or ever --- but being afraid of the unknown is less desired than just being cautious and careful of the unknown. And you might find a helpful and benign friend or two.
    • 5/5
      This book, and A Wrinkle in Time, got me started on my lifelong love for science fiction.
    • 3/5
      Substance:  A young man falls through a "door" into our earth, meets an earthly family (he appears to be just as physiologically human as we are, with a few extra "super powers"), confronts some bad guys (pretty low-key low-lifes; it's a junior book), and returns home.A simplified view of good and evil (which is not necessarily unrealistic) allows the author to present an idealized view of life: pastoral, non-violent, even non-competitive. Since it is nominally "science fiction" no effort is expended on explaining how the other planet's inhabitant's achieved their perfect state.Style: Perfectly satisfactory for children, but nothing to interest adults, who would be more interested in Harper Lee or Saint Exupery.
    • 5/5
      Little Jon has fallen through a door in space to land in the southern Appalachian mountains, injured and without his memory. He meets a number of people who are very interested in his unusual skills--incredible agility, swift healing, and a shocking ability to read minds. Most of these people want to use him for their own purposes, but the Bean family only wants to protect him. However, keeping Jon out of harm's way may prove very dangerous for everyone involved.Another Nostalgia Read that I picked up to see if it was as good as I remember it--and it really is. There are a few problematic elements, like negative references to Cherokees and half-breeds by an antagonist. These mostly stem from the fact that the novel was originally published in 1965. (Notably, the judge who plays a pivotal role in the story is a woman.) The Bean family is almost TOO good, but their behavior reflects the way that we hope we would act, if presented with a lost and frightened alien boy. The ending was the part that I remembered most clearly, and while it's almost too "neat," it remains very satisfying.Recommended for science fiction fans and people who won't judge a book by its cover--because honestly, the "updated" cover art is much more dated than the actual text. (At least the original artwork here could pass for retro...)
    • 5/5
      This is a nice Fantasy book. Little Jon is from another world and has fallen into this world of meanness. He can read minds of people and animals.
    • 5/5
      Little Jon has fallen through a forgotten door and lands on earth. He is injured, frightened and alone until a kind family finds him and befriends him. As the family learns more about this strange boy with amazing abilities, so do some of the local neighbors, and things take an ugly turn as sensational stories start popping up in the local papers. It's just a matter of time before the government comes in to take over the situation. Will Jon make it home before he's forced into government service?I absolutely loved this story as a kid. I read the book maybe half a dozen times and re-reading it now to write this review, just validated my impressions of it from childhood. It's intelligent and very suspenseful, and most of all leaves you with a feeling of wonder about the possibility of other worlds just waiting behind a forgotten door.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful story of a lost boy. Jon finds himself bruised and bloody in unfamiliar mountains. After a frightening encounter with some humans, he finds some deer who lead him to safety and he is found by a kind family. Jon's loss of memory complicates the situation, and he possesses abilities that scare the more reactionary members of the mountain community. Jon finds himself charged with burglary, threatened with reform school, and menaced by a secret government organization that wants to use him and his special abilities.As bits of his memory return, he and his foster family piece together who and what he must be, and how to return him to where he belongs. This is complicated by the community's extreme reactions to his presence in their midst.An excellent story that appeals to adults as well as middle-schoolers. A great introduction to science fiction for those who object to stories with too much technology or bug-eyed monsters (BEMs).
    • 4/5
      This book may be one of the very first I read by myself and loved. Sometimes it is possible to feel very alone as a kid, and in this book, there is a main character who feels very alone. Jon is special; he is from a different world, but he has fallen through into ours, and having hit his head, he does not remember who he is or where he is from. The first people he meets are not the kind who make him feel at home, and he is lucky to meet some others who are kind and understanding. But the real question is: will he be able to find his way home? This gets more and more urgent as the chapters go by. The book is exciting and fun. It is also, in some hard-to-define way, a little bit sad. Even though it ends well, it makes you wish the world was different, and wonder why so many people can be unkind. But it also leaves you grateful for the possibility of being kind, friendly, and full of awe. After I read this book I used to look up at the stars in the night sky and wonder a lot. I bet you will too.
    • 3/5
      An enjoyable story - but oddly not what I remembered reading long ago. I'm not sure if I'm mixing stories, or I was young enough that Little Jon felt older (that's what I remembered - a teenager at least). It's got a lot of similarities to Escape from Witch Mountain by the same author, though the ending is happier. Mysterious child appears in the mountains - a mystery even to himself, without his memory. His peculiar abilities first help him, then get him into trouble with the authorities. But rescue comes at the last minute, and things end well - I'd forgotten the family's choice, too.

    Book preview

    The Forgotten Door - Alexander Key

    He Is Lost and Found

    IT HAPPENED SO QUICKLY, so unexpectedly, that Little Jon’s cry was almost instantly cut short as the blackness closed over him. No one knew the hole was there. It hadn’t been there the day before, and in the twilight no one had noticed it.

    At the moment it happened, the first shooting stars were crossing the sky — they were beginning to stream across like strings of jewels flung from another planet — and everyone was watching them. The smaller children were exclaiming in delight, while the older ones stood silent and enthralled. Here on the hill, where the valley people often came to watch the glittering night unfold, you could see the whole magic sweep around you, and you felt close to everything in the heavens. Other people, you knew, were standing on other hills on other worlds, watching even as you watched.

    Little Jon, whose eyes were quicker than most, should have seen the hole, but all his attention was on the stars. Small for his age, he had moved away from the rest for a better view, and as he stepped backward, there was suddenly nothing under his feet.

    It was astonishing at that moment to find himself falling swiftly into the hill at a spot where he had walked safely all his life. But in the brief seconds before the blackness swallowed him, he realized what must have happened: there had been a cave-in over the old Door — the Door that led to another place, the one that had been closed so long.

    He cried out and tried to break his fall in the way he had been taught, but the effort came an instant too late. His head struck something, and darkness swirled over him.

    Long later, when Little Jon was able to sit up, he had no idea where he was or what had happened. Memory had fled, and he ached all over. He would have been shivering with cold, but his thick jacket and trousers and heavy, woven boots kept him warm.

    He seemed to be in a narrow cleft of broken rock. There were mossy stones around him, and just ahead he could make out a bed of ferns where water trickled from a spring. He was still too dazed to be frightened, but now he realized he was thirsty, terribly so. He crawled painfully forward and lay with his face in the water while he drank.

    The coldness of the water startled him at first, but it was wonderfully sweet and satisfying. He bathed his face and hands in it, then sat up at last and looked around again.

    Where was he? How did he get here? He pondered these questions, but no answers came. He felt as if he had fallen. Only — where could he have fallen from? The rocky walls met overhead, sloping outward into a tangle of leafy branches.

    There was another question his mind carefully tiptoed around, because it was more upsetting than the others. Whenever he approached it, it caused a dull aching in his forehead. Finally, however, he gave his head a small shake and faced it squarely.

    Who am I?

    He didn’t know. He simply didn’t know, and it made everything terribly wrong.

    All at once, trembling, he got to his feet and fled limping toward a shaft of sunlight ahead. Thick shrubs barred his way. He fought blindly through them, tripped, and fell sprawling. Fortunately he missed the boulders on either side, and landed in a soft bed of old leaves under a tree. He scrambled up in panic, started to run again, then stopped himself just in time.

    This wasn’t the sort of country where you could run. There were steep ledges here, and below them the ground sloped sharply downward for a great distance. All of it was covered with a wild tangle of forest. Little Jon rubbed his eyes and looked around him with growing wonder and fright.

    Nothing here was familiar. He was sure of that. He had never seen trees quite like the ones around him. Many of the smaller trees were in bloom, covered with showers of white blossoms — these were almost familiar, as were the ferns and lichens on the rocks. But there was a difference. But what the difference was, he was unable to tell.

    Carefully he worked down to an open area below the ledge, and stood listening. The sounds were familiar, and hearing them made him feel a bit better. Birdsong, the gurgling of hidden springs, the faint clatter and fuss of a rushing stream somewhere. And there were the hesitant steps of wild creatures that came pleasantly to his sharp ears. Without quite realizing his ability, which was as natural as breathing, his mind reached toward them and found nothing strange in them — except that they were afraid. Afraid of him!

    Don’t be afraid, he told them, so softly that his lips barely moved. "I’d never hurt you."

    After a minute, two of the creatures — they were a doe and her fawn — moved hesitantly down the slope and stood looking at him curiously. Little Jon held out his hands, and presently the doe came close and nuzzled his cheek with her cold nose.

    Where am I? he asked her plaintively. Can you tell me?

    The doe couldn’t answer, and all he could gather was that she was hungry, and that food could be found in the valley below.

    Lead the way, he told her. I’ll follow.

    The doe and the fawn started down through the tangle. Little Jon went scrambling and limping behind them. Walking was difficult, for both his knees were badly bruised and one ankle pained with every step. Soon, however, they reached a winding game trail and the going was much easier. Even so, it was hard to keep up with the doe, and several times in the next hour he had to beg her to stop and wait for him.

    It did not seem at all strange to be following her. Her presence was very comforting and kept the unanswered questions from troubling him.

    As they wound down near the bottom of the slope, the trees thinned and they passed through an open gate. Ahead he could see bright sunlight on a small greening field. Around a corner of the field ran a clattering stream — a stream different from the one he had heard earlier.

    At the sight of the field Little Jon caught his breath. Fields and cultivated things were familiar. There would be people near. Soon he would meet them and find out about himself.

    The doe paused at the edge of the field, sniffing the air currents. Little Jon could feel her uneasiness, though he could not understand it. He sniffed too, but all he could smell were the pleasant scents of fresh earth and blossoms, and the richness of the forest behind them. He was disappointed that he couldn’t make out the scent of humans near, but maybe this was because the air was flowing down from the mountain, away from him.

    As the doe stepped daintily into the field and began to nibble the young plants, Little Jon unconsciously did what he should have done earlier. His mind reached out, searching hopefully. He had no thought of danger. The sudden discovery that there was danger was so shocking that he could only spring forward with a strangled cry as he tried to tell the doe to run.

    The doe whirled instantly and leaped, just as the sharp report of a rifle shattered the peace of the morning.

    Little Jon had never heard a rifle shot before, but he was aware of the hot slash of pain across the doe’s flank, and he could see the weapon in the hands of the man who rose from his hiding place at the edge of the stream. He was a lean man in overalls, with one shoulder higher than the other. The harsh features under the cap showed surprise and disbelief as he stared at Little Jon. Then the thin mouth twisted in fury.

    Devil take you! the man roared, striding forward. You ruint my aim! What you doin’ in my field?

    Little Jon could make nothing of the words. The language was strange, but the hate-driven thoughts behind it were clear enough. For a moment he stood incredulous, his mind trying to fight through the shock of what had happened. Surely the man approaching was a being like himself. But why the intent to kill another creature? Why the sudden hate? How could anyone ever, ever …

    The anger that rose in him was a new thing. It was something he had never experienced before, at least in this measure. His small hands balled into fists and he trembled. But just as quickly, he realized that he couldn’t quench hate with hate, and that now there was danger to himself. He turned abruptly and fled.

    Stop! the man bellowed, close behind him. I know you — you’re one o’ them Cherokees from over the ridge! I’ll teach you to come meddlin’ on my land!

    Little Jon tried to lighten his feet and put distance between

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1