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Rating: 4/5 Stars
Title: A Wrinkle in Time
Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Synopsis:
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.
"Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract."
A tesseract (in case the reader doesn't know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L'Engle's unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg's father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.
A Wrinkle in Time is the winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal.
Initial thoughts:
This is the second time that I have read this book, but I decided to write a review for it because the movie just came out a little while ago. The first time that I read this was actually a few years back when a professor scolded me for having never read it before (jokingly of course) especially since my concentration was juvenile lit and I find myself drawn to science fiction and fantasy tales. She assigned the book to me for homework and had me write a comparison on it and the graphic novel that had also been released. When I first read it I found that I found myself able to relate with the characters even though the book had been written a long while back.
Plot:
What I liked:
I really did enjoy the book and loved all of the characters that were presented. Meg seriously was such a powerful character for me and reading this book at an older age really made me wish I had found it when I was much younger (of course back when I was a kid I hated to read an probably wouldn’t have picked it up, but that is old news). The idea that this book is about self love and introduces large scientific concepts like a tesseract really was pretty amazing to me.
Something I also really liked about this book had to do with the differences between Meg and her little brother Charles Wallace. Charles Wallace was a very gifted child. He was very aware that he was smart and enjoyed to challenge his intellect, but that caused him some challenges through the book. While it was Meg’s faults, not her looks or her smarts, that helped her out in the end.
What I didn't like:
The only real reason why this book got a point taken off for me was due to the fact that there is some information that might be hard for a younger audience to understand. Again, I read this book in hopes of introducing it to children at the library I worked at. The concepts can be a little daunting for children of younger ages, but overall I found that things were fairly well explained. Another reason why this is at a lower rating is due to the abrupt ending that is presented in the book. It feels rather out of place unless you go onto the second book right away. If you simply read the first book, which you can and get a fantastic story from, you might be left feeling a bit rushed.
Characters:
Meg: She is so strong and such a wonderful role model for young readers. Especially female readers. Her insecurities are very relatable, even with someone of my own age that I found myself looking back and thinking ‘Yup, I’m just like her’.
Charles Wallace: This boy is too smart for his own good and even when he is warned about it, he decides to test himself at the worst possible time.
Calvin: He was such a sweet character. I felt that he needed more attention throughout the book.
The Mrs’s: They were so cool! They were rather different, but they were so amazing and still tried to understand things even when it was something they might question themselves.
Mr. Murry: He did what he had to do and it might not have felt like the right thing, but he only did what he felt was right for those he loved.
The Happy Medium: I loved her! She was such an interesting character and I found her so intriguing.
Aunt Beast: Was such an amazing character. I think that she was my favorite being so loving even with someone she had never met before and had trouble understanding.
IT: The overall villain within the Book. The IT was a creation that focused on logic rather than on human like emotions and it was interesting to see when something is devoid of feeling how they can prey on the insecurities of others to makes something seem better when it might not be.
Overall:
This book really was a very amazing and for the time in which it was written, was extremely progressive. The scientific aspect of the book left me floored as I imagined exactly what was being described while understanding the symbolism that came along with it. I highly recommend this book even if you aren’t so much into science fiction. It is a wonderful story centered around the complications that come with listening to your head and your heart.