A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (published 1962)
Cover of A Wrinkle in Time
One-sentence summary: After a government scientist disappears, his daughter goes searching for him across time and space, along with her child prodigy brother and her best friend.
My rating: almost 5 stars
When read: First time, I would guess in the early ’80s, when I was a pre-teen. Reread in October 2009.
There are five books total in this series (the Time Quintet). I am sure that as a pre-teen, I read the subsequent two books: A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. I probably did not read the final two books in the series, as by the time they were published, I had moved on to adult fiction.
Why read: I’m sure I read this for the first time because it was already a classic by then and I loved sci fi. The second time I read it to revisit a childhood favorite.
Impressions: I reread this beloved book from my childhood to see if it held up over the years. It did, and Meg is still an inspiring, empowering character for me. Meg always seemed to me like a real girl, kind of like me, who was smart and geeky, but also had problems she had to face up to and overcome. Also, it was very cool to read science fiction that had a girl for a protagonist.
Current status: I don’t currently have a copy, but I’d like to get a nice one for posterity. I am looking forward to sharing this series with my son when he is old enough, and rereading these books again.
Fun facts:
- The book was rejected by at least 26 publishers before finally being accepted.
- Nearly every novel by Madeleine L’Engle connects to the Time Quintet series either directly or indirectly due to appearances of recurring characters.
- In formal math, a tesseract is a four-dimensional shape similar to a three-dimensional cube, or a two-dimensional square. In the novel, a tesseract is a portal from one area of space to another, which is possible through the bending of the structure of the space-time continuum.
- Despite its strong Christian themes, this novel is frequently challenged or banned because it “challenges religious beliefs.”
- This is one of the books Sawyer reads when shipwrecked in the TV series Lost.
If you like this book, then you might also like:
- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
[...] A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle [...]
Pingback by My Reading Life: The Giver « Books Worth Reading — June 30, 2012 @ 12:23 pm
My husband and I were driving somewhere when I heard that Mrs. L’Engle had died. I burst into tears. I am so thankful that she found writing…
Comment by Ali — July 31, 2012 @ 6:59 pm