3.5/5 stars

This took me SO LONG to read but was full of MEMZ. I really love the characters in this book and how weird it is, but it can also feel a bit *too* weird and random if that makes sense?
Overall some great life lessons and messages throughout, as I remembered from my CHILDHOOD.

Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself.


I started reading A Wrinkle in Time last year, and I had to put it on a pause (not because it was bad, but because I had the longest reading slump of my life). Moving on to present time, since I've been reading a lot of children and middle grade books, I decided to pick it up again. And I'm so happy I did.

A Wrinkle in Time follows the story of Meg, her brother, Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on their fantastic adventures filled with magic and different types of magical creatures. Even though the magic aspect of the story was really good, what I enjoyed the most was the science aspect of the story. Madeleine L'Engle mixed our own world perfectly with the magical one, but she also, at the same time, made it as realistic as she possibly could. The world, mixed with interesting character, and really creepy setting at times together made a wonderful novel, and an amazing start to a series that I cannot wait to continue.

I re-read this children's book in advance of seeing the new movie version starring Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon.

I don't think I've read "A Wrinkle in Time" in about 30 years, and it was fun to revisit it. I was amazed by how many scenes and bits of dialogue I remembered from childhood! It's a remarkable and imaginative story — highly recommended.

Favorite Quotes
"Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself."

"We can't take any credit for our talents. It's how we use them that counts."

"If you aren't unhappy sometimes you don't know how to be happy."

"Only a fool is not afraid."

"There will no longer be so many pleasant things to look at if responsible people do not do something about the unpleasant ones."

“We can't take any credit for our talents. It's how we use them that counts.”

I read A Wrinkle in Time in grade school, 35-40 years ago. I remember really liking it, but none of the details. So, with the movie coming out, I decided to give it a re-read.

A Wrinkle in Time has the kernels of a lot of different ideas, scientific and religious, even if none are dealt with very deeply. I also thought the ending was pretty abrupt. But I think it works well as a book for gifted kids about gifted kids. And as a bonus, it’s got to be the best novel ever written that actually begins “It was a dark and stormy night.” Recommended for young readers.

About: A Wrinkle in Time is a children’s science fiction written by Madeleine L’Engle. It was published on 3/15/1973 by Yearling Books, paperback, 211 pages. The genres are children’s, science fiction, and fantasy. This book is intended for readers ages 10 to 14. This book belongs to a series of 5 books.

My Experience: I started reading A Wrinkle in Time on 3/13/18 and finished it on 3/16/18. This book is fantastic! I love the characters! They all have unique personalities. I like the twin’s good sense of humor. I like their easy going intelligent parents and the oddities of Meg and Charles Wallace. I like that despite the characters being super smart, that they seem to have a disability in others. Charles Wallace is a genius but he didn’t speak until he was 4 years old. Meg is excellent at math but she is a trouble student at school. It’s a good reminder that even geniuses are still not perfect. I read this book to watch the remake of A Wrinkle in Time. I have seen the old version of the movie years ago and some events came back to me as I read this book.

This book is told in the third person point of view following Margaret (Meg) Murry as she experiences one of the lowest days of her life. Her grades are suffering, the mean girls at school are saying she’s acting like a baby, and she has gotten herself into a fight to protect her youngest brother, Charles Wallace though her middle twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys weren’t appreciative of her efforts. Now the storm is scaring her. The storm brought in one of their new strange neighbors, Mrs. Whatsit. To Meg and her mom’s surprise, Charles Wallace already gotten acquainted with the new neighbor. Mrs. Whatsit said a tesseract is real and it brought on a whole new adventure for Meg and Charles Wallace. This adventure involves rescuing their father, a renowned physicist. With the help of Mrs. Whatsit and her two friends Mrs.Which and Mrs. Who and Meg’s classmate, Calvin, they were able to travel by tesser to far away planets.

A well written story, this book is full of adventures and wholesome characters for readers. I love the illustrations in this book that explains how traveling through tesser works. I like the mathematical references and the mentioning of Einstein. I like how Meg’s dad spent time to teach Meg math shortcuts and the periodic table of elements. I like Charles Wallace and his interest in higher learning at such a young age. I like the glimpse of Camazotz’s citizens, how everyone doing the same thing in a rhythmic motion. This book has a good family dynamic and the curiosity of the mind and I highly recommend everyone to read this book!

Pro: fast paced, page turner, easy to read, family oriented, other planets,

Con: none

I rate it 5 stars!

***Disclaimer: I borrowed this book from my local public library and my opinions are honest.

xoxo,
Jasmine at www.howusefulitis.wordpress.com for more details

Meg Murry and her friends and family become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.



As I'm reading the book I find myself surprised by the movie trailer... it's nothing like I'm imagining as I'm reading, which is weird. Not only is the family different, but the three women are nothing like in the book. I was surprised I recognized many sentences and metaphors in the story in other books. So far, Charles Wallace Murry is my favorite!



I found the trailer sort of pretentious, focusing more on effects and the three main actresses than the story and the children, it also focused on skin color and feminism more than the simple story, making a children book a cause, not for entertainment but to make a point. Enough is enough.



As for the story, it seems a story of faith and loss, and I'm not talking about Meg's father. I'm talking about the author, it seems like in its core the story holds a message. I guess that's why the author never liked her stories adapted into movies: they lost their meaning.

This is a beautifully told story that is basically about love. Important messages about family, friendship, being different, and standing up for what's right. Sci-fi for kids. It says 12 & up but most 9 to 11 year olds enjoy it also. L'Engle introduces concepts from science, philosophy, music, etc., with great imagination. And it's been one of my favorite books since I was 9 and my 4th grade teacher read it to the class. Then my 5th grade teacher read it to us. And then I bought the book for myself, and I still have that copy. I'm always surprised when people are not as enthusiastic as I am about this book. I always cry with emotion at exactly the same place near the end of the book...won't give anything away here. I reread this one every few years and it's a special experience each time.

Oh, and I so love the original book cover art that's on the book I own. Leaves all to the imagination unlike the various newer covers.

First, understand that I am editing this review after several outraged responses. I knew that "Wrinkle" was considered to be a classic, but I was unaware that it was considered a Beloved Classic Beyond Criticism. I read this in grade school and just REread it aloud, to my daughter. I didn't have a clear memory of it, though I remember that I loved the way it started. Now I realize why I forgot so much of it. I STILL love the first 3 chapters, and dislike the rest. But since some of you found (and WILL find, I'm sure) my review to be judgmental, harsh and undiplomatic (a review IS a critique, right?) to the point of insulting, I thought I'd do a little research, look over the book again, think about it some more. So I've edited this review. But I find I just can't retract my statements. They are my opinion, that's all, and I haven't changed my mind. I can only try to be open minded, be honest, and try to explain my thoughts & feelings more clearly. Otherwise, I'd be a simpering fake.

Like C.S. Lewis books (especially the last of his Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle), A Wrinkle In Time has strong, (heavy-handed, I think), overtones of Christian doctrine. I'm not anti-spiritual, but I have a personal discomfort with this kind of religious doctrine. (You many not, and that's fine.) But more than that issue, the book is an odd combination of intelligent hard science, interesting quantum science that is brushed over, and quotes from the bible. At least there are a few respectful mentions of other spiritual leaders from other cultures, and moral messages from classic literature and philosophers. I understand this combination garnered criticism from both religious fundamentalists as well as atheists and secular society. L'Engle has earned my respect for taking on the difficult and controversial marriage of science and religion. She has also earned my criticism for raising this issue and then failing to really grapple with it. It's treated lightly, as though it's a natural thing that should be easy to accept, in spite of the many holes and inconsistencies in her story. I wouldn't even mind, except that this book takes itself SO seriously! It's easy to imagine that a school teacher might use this book to demonstrate that Evolutionist Theory and Creationism can be combined, but I find science and religion to have a disjointed and uneasy coexistence in this book. One is always dropped abruptly for the other. Or at least, it seems so to me.

Ok. Now that I have tackled that big one, let's move on. I found the characters rather flat, (the genius child, the misfit girl, the beautiful, genius, scientist mother who nonetheless stays home and cooks stew in bunsen burners while her husband has adventures). The story itself is made up of vague scenarios of conflict of the psyche and spirit, with the entire Universe at stake. L'Engle's metaphors are obvious and their manifestations flat. [SPOILER ALERT] There is a quest to fight a "Darkness" (oooh!) that wants to rid us all of individuality & free will. There are 3 beings who used to be stars before they died in the fight with the "Darkness" and became something beyond our comprehension. They can appear in any form to us, so that we have some way of processing their existence. They are, in fact, so beyond anything knowable that I can't feel much for them or say much about them, except that they make a convenient plot device for transporting the characters throughout the Universe and the story. Anyway, the "Darkness" takes over a planet which turns into a kind of sci-fi beehive, with brainwashed automatons. I found the planet to be delightfully creepy and would have liked to know more about it, (even if it seems suspiciously like a thinly veiled anti-communist warning message.) So guess what's doing the brainwashing? - a giant, evil, disembodied brain, called IT, who is personally responsible for spreading the Darkness across the Universe. Really? A brain? Doesn't anyone else find this simplistic and cliche? The main character defeats this brain by gushing love. I am quite sure that many, many readers were moved to tears by Meg's gushing, but I do not happen to be that kind of person. Before Meg realizes that she has the power to gush love, the crusaders tesser through time and space (no explanation of how the father can do this) to a fascinating planet with very interesting aliens who can't see, but have other senses. I'd have loved to know more about their society and these mysterious other senses, but again, these ideas aren't very developed.

These are the things in this book, and in L'Engle's writing that I love: As I mentioned, I love her courage in at least attempting a controversial issue like mixing science and spirituality. I love that this book has the heart to recognize love as the greatest power, and that it has the wisdom to recognize fear as one of the biggest weapons. I love that individuality prevails, and the romantic in me approves of the loving, whole family. I love that she has enough respect for children that she included difficult vocabulary and a few difficult concepts. Many children are far more capable of handling complex ideas than we give them credit for, especially if we expose them to these things early on. I love that L'Engle doesn't underestimate them in this way, at least initially, on the surface. Since my biggest problems with this book all involve my finding it simplistic, naive, and certain parts of it cliche & obvious, I wonder if I need to remind myself that it's meant for children. Perhaps children should be idealistic, or even naive, in the way that this book is. But then I wonder if that is another way of underestimating them. ESPECIALLY since I felt exactly the same way when I read this book as a child!

Wind In The Willows makes me feel closer to God, or a creative power (though there's some gushing in there too, at the end.) The Jungle Book explores social constructs and morals, more deeply and naturally, for me. A Sound Of Thunder blew my mind, in grade school, with its "butterfly effect" theory of the power and responsibility of each individual. All of these are childrens' books, though they span generations, and time and space, more gracefully than tessering did for me. I could name so many more.

But, if A Wrinkle In Time opened your mind to new ideas, (instead of making you feel frustrated by light treatment of them), made you question some latent prejudice, (instead of feeling bored by obvious metaphors), lifted your spirits & made you cheer for bookish outcasts, (instead of feeling that no one is that one-dimensional) or cry for the love of a big sister & little brother, (instead of cringing when a version of "I love you Charles Wallace" appears 19 times in 2 pages), then it is a wonderful book. For you.

Beloved by many, A Wrinkle in Time is supposedly a whimsical tale of three children's fantastic adventure through time and space. Yet somehow it only managed to make me feel as though I was having a really bad anxiety attack.

Reading this reminded me of when my grade 7 music teacher forced us to watch that horribly creepy, animated Beatles movie, Yellow Submarine. A Wrinkle in Time reads like a Dr. Seuss story but darker. Weirder. I'm not sure how to explain it but there's something really unsettling about it.

Beyond that it's just really dull. The characters are extremely flat and the dialogue is shrill and unnatural. I really wanted to see it through to the end since it's such a short book, but I just couldn't do it. I am utterly baffled by this rather tedious and somewhat sinister story.

I am often asked how I came to write A Wrinkle in Time. Even with all the hindsight of which I am capable I can't quite explain it. It was during a time of transition...

I was on a cosmological jag at that time, partly, I suppose because it satisfied my longing for God better than books of theology. The influence of those books on Wrinkle is obvious. I was also quite consciously writing my own affirmation of a universe which is created by a power of love.

...the book was rejected by publisher after publisher [on the grounds that it wasn't classifiable] ...But this book I'm sure of.

--Madeleine L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet (pages 217-8)

Anybody else read it with this cover?



I did. 1986, I was in 6th grade, and it was assigned to us by our teacher.
This book changed my world. Or at least, my reading world.
Welcome to sci-fi, kid!
I have no idea how many times I've read this story, but as a child, I read it so much that this awesome cover eventually fell off. Just so many great memories of these characters make it is easily my favorite childhood novel.

After doing a re-read of it this year, I have to say it holds up pretty well for a book that was written in 1962. One of the things that help it age so decently is that L'Engle didn't have much in it that could age it. No brand names, no popular trends, no references to any politics of the day. The only stuff that really let you know you were reading a book written in the '60s was Calvin saying things like Golly! unironically or Charles Wallace being disrespectful by calling his father Pops.

It's a very simple story that I read in just under 2 hours, but I remember it being complex enough when I was younger. I think it hits all the right points for a kid who feels out of place and weird, and didn't we all feel out of place and weird at that age?
Yes. Yes, we did.

The only thing I was less excited about this time around were all the religious references, but the book is what it is, and you just kind of have to accept that God is a big theme in this and move on if you want to enjoy it. It's not too preachy, so there's that.

Will kids today like it? I'm trying to get mine to read it now, so ask me again in 6 months.

But I'd been putting off re-reading this thing for 20 plus years and was pleasantly surprised that it was still such a charming story.
Highly Recommended...for nostalgia.

Three stars because I can see how during the time of A Wrinkle in Time's publication, few female protagonists in fiction existed. The concept of a young girl going on an adventure to save her brother and father combats stereotypes about women only practicing passivity. Beyond that, though, I connected with little in this book. The plot felt sloppy and hard-to-follow, the characters came across as one-dimensional, and the religious allusions reduced the complexity of the story's other themes, such as good vs. evil. I wanted to like this one a lot more than I did, though I feel glad for the girls and women who have drawn insight and felt empowered from reading A Wrinkle in Time.