Abstract
Despite the influence of Alexander Key’s novels on children’s culture of the sixties and seventies, his work as a science fiction writer has not been widely considered by children’s literature scholars. This study moves beyond ideological and structural examinations of children’s SF to analyze the responses of real child readers to Key’s novel, The Forgotten Door. Utilizing children’s letters housed at the de Grummond Children’s Literature Collection alongside reviews from adult readers posted on Amazon, it traces how the novel encourages readers to think more critically about issues such as discrimination, violence, animal welfare, and their own behavior. At the same time, it shows how children understand the book as speaking to their own experiences and concerns and the sense of kinship they share with Key. Their responses demonstrate how science fiction novels like The Forgotten Door can serve as a point of connection between adults and child readers.
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Notes
Key was one of twenty-two writers named as favorites in Farah Mendlesohn’s survey of SF readers, receiving the same percentage of votes as writers such as Stan Lee and Peter Dickinson (2009, p. 215).
The “New Wave” refers to a generation of British avant-garde science fiction writers known for their experimental style and often pessimistic visions of the future, including writers like J.G. Ballard and Brian Aldiss (Levy and Stableford, 1995, p. 225).
This same plot is repeated in Escape to Witch Mountain (1968), Jagger: The Dog from Elsewhere (1976), The Case of the Vanishing Boy (1979), and Flight to the Lonesome Place (1967). All feature aliens/supernaturally gifted protagonists (often orphans) seeking a place to belong.
While this language recalls the rhetoric of colorblindness, Key’s novels are overtly critical of discrimination. Black and Native American characters are protagonists in novels like The Magic Meadow, Flight to the Lonesome Place, and Jagger. These novels suggest that people from marginalized groups possess a more compassionate outlook that makes them superior to less enlightened humans.
These themes are also embodied in the character of Thomas Bean, a Korean War veteran whose experiences have led him to reject guns and violence and opt out of the commercial “rat race” by moving with his family to the wilderness.
References
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Dawn Heinecken is Professor in the department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality at the University of Louisville, where she teaches courses in children’s literature, science fiction, and media studies.
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Heinecken, D. “I Can Tell You Have ‘Special Understanding’”: Young Science Fiction Readers and Alexander Key’s The Forgotten Door. Child Lit Educ (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-023-09548-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-023-09548-6