Every Heart A Doorway

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, bullying, and transgender discrimination.

Eleanor West runs a boarding school for children who have visited magical worlds, most of whom are girls. She never includes the students in the entrance interviews because this would give them a false first impression of her. When she meets with prospective families, she tells them the soothing lie that their loved ones have “a rare but not unique disorder” that causes delusions in girls approaching womanhood (12). In actuality, Eleanor knows that the children are not delusional because she has been to another world as well. She’s heartbroken that roughly one third of the prospective students she could help do not enroll, but she takes comfort in the knowledge that those entrusted to her care are surrounded by people who understand their situation. Eleanor lacked this sort of community when she returned to this world, and she still longs to go “back to the place where she belong[s]” (14).

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is a manor with a vibrant garden. Eleanor is almost 100 years old, but she appears to be in her sixties because her travels in other worlds have granted her longevity.