A Wrinkle in Time

L’Engle, Madeline. A Wrinkle in Time. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1962.  Tr. $17.00, ISBN-10  0-374-38613-7

What’s it about?

The stubborn secret math whiz Meg Murry, her extraordinary little brother Charles Wallace, and their neighbor, the kind, athletic and intelligent Calvin O’Keefe band together to time-travel with three other-worldly beings, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which to  find Meg and Charles’ father Mr. Murray, a physicist who has been missing for nearly two years.  Will they find Mr. Murray, or will their dangerous journeys destroy them?

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Meg Murry is an underdog, ridiculed at school and dismissed by her teachers. She bitterly misses her father, a physicist, for almost two years, when he disappeared while working on a secret project. Her brother, Charles Wallace, is rumored to be sub-normal, since he didn’t begin to talk until he was four, but he is actually a genius with an uncanny ability to read people. The unusual boy has been making some unusual friends: mysterious old women (Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which) who have taken up in the haunted house in the woods. Charles takes Meg to meet them, and the siblings encounter a boy, Calvin O’Keefe, who felt inexplicably compelled to come to the haunted house.  Calvin instantly feels connected to the Murrays, and the three band together with the ancient (try billions of years old) Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which to find Mr. Murray. The travel, of course, involves a tesseract, a wrinkle in time. Their journeys lead them to fantastic and frightening planets and beings—some that threaten to destroy them.   

A Wrinkle in Time is an intense book you’ll read with bated breath—especially when the children arrive on the planet Camazotz.  The most significant theme of the book, and one that allows the book to have a happy ending, is the power of love to vanquish the destructive nature of evil.  In A Wrinkle in Time, even beings that we think of as frightening (such as Aunt Beast) show an astonishing capacity for love. Another theme young readers will enjoy is the power of intelligence and individuality to stand against the cloying pressure to conform. L’Engle tackles these themes with breath-taking world-building, beautiful turns of phrase, and lets the events unfold through the eyes of Meg, the most ordinary character in this book—and also the bravest.

Did you know?

A side-note about this book is the difficulty L’Engle had in getting it published. She had over two dozen rejections before Farrar, Straus and Giroux agreed to publish it. The main reasons it was rejected are, interestingly, its strengths: it’s a very unique story, a complex story, a tale of fighting evil. Publishers seemed confused about whether this was a children’s book or an adult book as well.

This book is intelligent and deep, so it isn’t surprising it is on the ALA’s list of Frequently Challenged Books. Many great books end up on this list. I’m fascinated that L’Engle, who is a Christian, has had trouble with critics who, despite the positive religious and scriptural allusions (which remind me very much of C.S. Lewis’ works), think that mentioning Jesus in the same context as great artists and scientists amounts to blasphemy (even though L’Engle had Charles Wallace shout out his name first). Another reason this book has been challenged is because of references to witchcraft! This book will turn children over to the powers of darkness, just like Harry Potter! This type of “logic” makes me wonder if the critics actually bothered to read A Wrinkle in Time.  What book were they reading? Witchcraft? Witches? Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Which aren’t witches. Oh wait, Mrs. Which=Mrs. Witch. I stand corrected.

Genre: Science Fiction

Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 5-9

Subjects: Time travel, Extraterrestrials, Conformity, Love, Family, Good vs. Evil

Awards:

Newbery Medal (1963)

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award (1964)

Read-alikes:

Stead’s When You Reach Me

Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia

Series information:

The Time Quintet

A Wind in the Door (1973)

A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978)

Many Waters (1986)

An Acceptable Time (1989)

When You Reach Me

Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me. Wendy Lamb Books, 2009. Tr. $15.99, ISBN 978-0-385-73742-5.

What’s it about?

When sixth-grader Miranda’s best friend Sal gets punched by a strange kid, the unprovoked attack somehow unravels their friendship. Shortly after, Miranda receives the first of a series of mysterious notes that hint at an impending tragedy she must help prevent.  

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It’s 1978 in New York City, and two childhood friends, Sal and Miranda, know the safest route to and from school, and know to avoid the Laughing Man, who rants “bookbag, pocketshoe” and likes to sleep under a mailbox.  Miranda’s world changes forever when her friend Sal is sucker-punched by a strange boy one day. After the unprovoked attack, Sal suddenly starts to shut her out of his life. Shortly after, Miranda begins receiving strange, cryptic notes that appear to be from someone who knows things he or she couldn’t possibly know.  Miranda is terrified, especially when her mother’s emergency spare key is stolen.  In the meantime, Miranda meets the boy, Marcus, who punched Sal “just to see what would happen.” Marcus is unusual. He sees her battered copy of A Wrinkle in Time, her favorite books, and begins a head-spinning argument about time travel. Meanwhile, Miranda navigates 6^th grade friendship drama (and discovers the impact she makes through small acts of kindness) and begins to put the pieces of the mysterious notes together. When something terrible happens, everything finally makes sense.

This thoughtful, powerful novel, which is in the form of a letter addressed to the note writer, unfolds quietly until its dramatic final act. Some readers may already know what will happen, but it doesn’t make it any less painful or poignant.  The way the story is told, in a non-linear fashion, adds to the mystery. Incorporating discussion about the plot elements of the classic A Wrinkle in Time adds to richness of this book. Stead weaves numerous subplots into this slim volume, and makes them all relate to the main plot. There is no unnecessary exposition.  There is so much going on that readers will probably want to re-read the book, but this is not due to Stead creating an obscure or incomprehensible story—readers will want to revisit the story to delight in how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together, to marvel in Stead’s genius. This is a stunning, satisfying book that will appeal to a wide audience.

Genre label: Contemporary Realistic Fiction with a dash of Science-Fiction

Reading level: 4^th grade

Interest level: Grades 4-9

Subjects: Latch-key kids, Working class families, Single mothers, Time-travel, Friendship

Awards:

Newbery Medal Winner (2010)

Read-alikes:

L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time

Snyder’s The Egypt Game