The Shadow Door (Elsewhere Chronicles Series #1) Book

It's bad enough when Max, Rebecca, Noah, and Theo just think Grandpa Gabe's house is haunted. But then the old movie projector in the library opens a passageway to a world of monsters and creatures made of shadows—a place of secrets and dangers set loose when the sun sets. The only weapons to fight them lie in the land on the other side of the Shadow Door. . .

Children's Literature

When preteen troublemakers Noah, Theo and Max meet Rebecca, the adopted granddaughter of recently deceased weirdo Old Man Gabe, they decide to explore his (supposedly) haunted house before the realtors get their hands on it. There, they discover that Old Man Gabe owned a strange movie projector that can open a portal into another world full of shadowy monsters, tree-like guardians, and a primitive civilization. Unfortunately the portal swings both ways, which allows some of the other world's monsters to escape. Now, the four kids must unlock the secrets of Old Man Gabe's strange devices and brave the dangers of the strange other world to keep their own world safe from all sorts of unknown horrors. Originally published in France, "The ElseWhere Chronicles" series won the Best Comic Book for Young Readers award at the Lyon Comics Festival. Artistically, the book is a joy; Bannister draws some very appealing kids and creates a wonderfully eerie atmosphere full of creepy rooms, shadows and monster tentacles that is straight out of a kid's favorite horror film. However, something may have been lost in Burrell's translation; the story, while promising, moves at a very slow pace until it nears the end. Hopefully, the upcoming books in the series, The Shadow Spies and The Master of Shadows, will offer a tighter, faster-paced story. Book one of "The ElseWhere Chronicles" series. Reviewer: Michael Jung