Going Through the Gate

by Janet S. Anderson

Book Overview

"Emotionally resonant first novel a moving fantasy that brilliantly evokes the fear and exhilaration of growing up."-- Publishers Weekly In the last one-room schoolhouse in the county, a strange... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525458360
• ISBN13: 9780525458364
• Release Date: October 1997
• Publisher: Dutton Books
• Length: 134 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Linking the Real and Natural Worlds

Miss Clough, the aged, frumpy teacher in the county's last one-room school house, has an extraordinary reputation in this rural town. Everyone who has graduated from her 6th grade for over 25 years has experienced something bizarre yet wonderful--never to be discussed afterwards--in a private ceremony behind the school. Down a path and through a special, locked gate, to enter her private region of fantasy. What is this secret ritual--long anticipated but mentioned in tones of hushed awe by the privileged natives? Becky and her 4 classmates have waited for their initiation into the adult secrets all year, and now, it's Their turn. The great day has come! For their Zoological instruction each pupil has chosen a different animal to study: chickadee, frog, cardinal, swallow, and trout--but only with Miss Clough's permission. In addition they have been training their internal clocks to "go off" on pre-set demand. Bossy Penny is Becky's best friend, but the boys seem to shun each other. Tim, a newcomer to town, is very suspicious of all the secrets whispered about Graduation, and resentful that he had to sacrifice his cat. Mary Margaret is the overburdened sister with too many siblings to nurture. Denied her own childhood, she has little joy in her life and wallows in guilt and is obsessed by sin. The class wavers in loyalty to their admired teacher--is she a witch or just plain crazy? This story hooks the reader instantly, so that we too are desperate to go through the gate along with the class, in order to discover a new world. How will the kids be changed; or is it all a great, two-generational hoax? Delightful Fantasy which will keep you glued to the pages!

Forget Hogwarts! I want to go the Miss Clough's school!

Albus Dumbledore has nothing on Miss Clough. Down a path behind her one-room school house stands a copper gate. And behind that gate lies the experience of a lifetime -- the experience shared by everyone in town on the day they graduate 6th grade -- the experience that shapes you for the rest of your life. There are no muggles here. Everyone who graduates 6th grade can go through that gate and be changed forever. It doesn't matter if you are new to town, or if your family has been there for generations. The author builds up suspense and then delivers. This is practical magic. I loved it!

An Unpredictable Adventure

This book was one of the shortest we've ever read. Although it lacked the quantity of a masterpiece, it kept our interest because it was unpredictable. The author describes the characters pretty well. The last scene is about graduation experience of five kids who almost worship their teacher. She leads them on an adventure that they will never forget. We especially liked the way the characters' mental states were explained as they go through the change into another reality. The last scene was stunningly brilliant. If you read the book, you'll see our reasoning. Newton Boys Reading Circle

A book about an "impossible" experiance

Going Through the Gate is an interesting book that I liked very much. It is about the sixth-graders in "the last one-room school house in the county." Every year when the sixth-graders graduate they get something extra. That something is an experience that is thought of as impossible by most people. To find out what that experience is, read Going Through the Gate.

Confusing but facinating the way the book was written.

I would recomend this book if you like fantesy books written to the piont were the author is telling the story. The book is confusing at first but after a while you understand what it means to "Go Through the Gate". I like how the author writes the story becase no specific character is telling the story.