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“Thou hast only to follow the wall far enough and there will be a door in it.”

I really liked this, and would have loved it if I‘d read it as a kid. It‘s definitely historical fiction from a bygone era of children‘s literature: no overwrought emotional drama, no fraught explorations of human suffering, just a matter-of-fact focus on overcoming loss and moving forward by doing the best you can with what you have.

February BookSpin! My #BookSpin landed on one of my #192025 categories: a book from the 1920s-40s. I decided on The Door in the Wall, published in 1949 (which has been on my shelf for so long I don‘t remember when I bought it!). And my #DoubleSpin landed on Unraveling, from my #AuldLangSpine list. Looking forward to both of these!

#BeginsWith @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
#Door

While finishing up The Children of the New Forest for #ChildrensClassicRead2021 I decided to continue my reading of books about #Doors
 @Mommamanzi told me about her childhood favorite book The Door in the Wall
What a #coinkydink they are both set during the English Civil Wars! 📚 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🚪

A sweet children‘s story that takes place in the Middle Ages during the plague. Robin, a ten-year-old, is supposed to train to become a knight when he suddenly loses the use of his legs. Robin spends time with Friar Luke who teaches him many skills, but ultimately that there is more than one path in life for us if we look for it. Quaint with lovely illustrations, it has a good message. I‘m not sure how today‘s kids like it, but think I would have

“...we must teach thy mind to go about whether thy legs will carry thee or no. For reading is another door in the wall, dost understand, my son?”

This was tonight‘s project. The library now has a door!! Next the steps. And actually cleaning the door and repairing the Hall I just painted. Ughhhhhhh. I just painted that thing last week.

It‘s like I‘m being punished for using a $5 door. 😜

“Always remember that,” said the friar. “Thou hast only to follow the wall far enough and there will be a door in it.”

This is a highly symbolical thing to remember, it would be a good inspirational tattoo!

Robin is about to be sent off to be a page at in a knight's household. His dad is off fighting for the king and his mom was called to wait on the queen just before Robin fell ill. It's not the plague which has killed all the servants. A friar comes to care for Robin. He is crippled but learning. He is able to get a letter to dad who tells him to go on to the knight's household. Once there the castle becomes under siege.

Short and entertaining.

Reading for the #NewberyChallenge.

A favorite of mine growing up, I got a 25 cent copy at the library bookstore a while back. Looking for things to spark my reading mojo back up & short & simple seem to work best-plus Max🐱& I need to get back to our afternoon reading habit.🐱Max says that his mom says she doesn't remember if there's cats in this one, so he doubts there are-but a monk just fed a boy some fish & he can support that! 😽🐟He's staying almost awake.😹 #catsoflitsy 😽❤️

Awesome to #buddyread this one with my boy Jack over the past few days! Honestly, he didn‘t love it that much because of the medieval time period and the way the characters talked 😳 But I liked it quite a bit and I especially loved the illustrations.

Having different opinions made reading it together that much more fun, especially since Jack is a little bit of a reluctant reader.

I impulsively decided to have a readalong with my boy! He has our actual print copy which means I‘m reading on my phone. Whatever, man. As long as he is reading. 💁🏻‍♀️

Going to try to read while I sub today.

Feeling grateful a previous reader let me know where the exciting part was!

Picked up some children's books I had missed reading when an actual child to lighten my current streak of horror novels, ha.

This one's a short, sweet little story set in England at about the time of the Black Death. Nice message, good for very young children. As an adult, talk of subduing the Scots and the Welsh does make me a bit uncomfortable, however... #booklearninwillruinagoodstory

"Safe with all thy loved ones."