The Door Within -- a teenagers's review

I've challenged my eldest niece to write reviews of books she reads, and posting them on this blog and on bookseller sites, in exchange for food and drink from, say, Panera. (She's partial to their giant carrot cake portions and cold lemonade.) I figure that's a fair exchange for a teenager, especially one who point-blank says she can be bribed with edibles.

We went to the Air Force base library last week, and looked for the works of authors she's heard me discuss, and we found a few novels but no complete series, until we happened upon Wayne Thomas Batson's trilogy, The Door Within. I grabbed all three books off the shelf and plunked them into her arms. "Here. Read this."

She looked momentarily bemused then smiled and shrugged, and we kept looking for more reading material. However, upon returning home, she almost immediately dove into the trilogy, and completed it in two days, but took a few days to compose notes into an orderly review. Here it is:


When Aidan's family moves to Colorado, it seems like the end of the world. Aidan has to leave everything he knows, including his only friends, to live with his wheelchair-bound grandfather. But when Aidan decides to explore the basement one afternoon, he finds the Scrolls, and the Story within them which turns out to be very real.

Heeding his grandfather's advice, Aidan enters the Door Within, and embarks on the adventures of a lifetime.

I recently borrowed The Door Within Trilogy by Wayne Thomas Batson, and found it to be both exciting and well-written. The characters and setting are realistic and vividly described, and the people are just that -- ordinary people who behave in ordinary ways -- making them easy to relate to.

 While there was a spot or two where I had to stop and think a minute before I could picture something (and I can't say I enjoyed the part in the spider den!), the books are definitely among my favorites.

There is plenty of adventure and suspense, but at the same time, an appropriate amount of wit and humor keeps the story fun in places where utter seriousness is not required.

Also, there are some very good lessons on courage and faith to be learned from these books.

Overall, I think that I would definitely purchase these books for myself to keep, and I would also recommend them to any other teens who are looking for good Christian fiction.

-- review by "Jamie", age 14, avid reader