A Wind in the Door is a new fantastic adventure story involving Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe, the chief characters of A Wrinkle in Time. It is a companion piece, not a sequel, and to enjoy and understand it does not depend on familiarity with the earlier book.

In A Wind in the Door we meet the Murry family: the children, Meg, Charles Wallace, and their twin brothers Dennis and Sandy; the Murry parents, both of whom are eminent scientists; and Calvin O'Keefe, athlete, honor student, and the outstanding boy of his high-school class.

The seed from which the story grows is the rather ordinary situation of Charles Wallace's having difficulties in adapting to school. Charles Wallace is extremely brights, so much so that he gets punched around a lot for being "different." Meg, concerned for Charles Wallace's welfare, determines to pay a visit to the school principal, Mr. Jenkins, a dry, cold man with whom Meg herself has had unfortunate run-ins during her own grade-school years.

The interview between Meg and Mr. Jenkins goes badly, and Meg worriedly returns home to find Charles Wallace waiting for her. "There are," Charles Wallace announces, "dragons in the twins' vegetable garden. Or there were. They've moved to the north pasture now."

Dragons? Not really, but an entity, a being stranger by far than dragons, and the encounter with this alien creature is only the first step in an adventure that leads Meg, Charles Wallace, Calvin, and Mr. Jenkins (yes, there are an especially alarming series of happenings in store for Mr. Jenkins) out into galactic space, and then into the unimaginably small world of a mitochondrion. And at last, safely, triumphantly, home.

A Wind in the Door displays those imaginative powers and storytelling gifts that have won Miss L'Engle thousands of enthusiastic readers. That the story has levels of truth beyond its obvious excitement as a story will come as no surprise to readers familiar with the author's work. Among the many awards Madeleine L'Engle has won are the Newbery Medal (for A Wrinkle in Time), the Sequoyah Award, and the Austrian State Prize. Miss L'Engle lives and works in New York City.

From the dust jacket