I read A Wrinkle in Time as a child and didn't remember anything except for the cover, which I used to love. The cover has changed since the last time I read the book, but the beautiful story has not. I must say, the only thing that I actually recalled when reading this book was the dog's name (Fortinbras) and the tesseract. But it was such a delight to read this book again.
This book is the first in a series of four. I wasn't aware that there were sequels, and now I'm very happy that there are. Meg and Charles Wallace are 2 of 4 children in their household. Both are not the most popular at school. Their parents are both brilliant scientists, but their father has been off on "business" for awhile and no one has heard from him. On a stormy night, a Mrs. Whatsit arrives at their door. Mrs. Whatsit sets into motion a time travelling, and space travelling voyage that is beyond what any of the children could ever expect. This is everything great about Sci-Fi. Wonderful and sometimes scary new worlds, new cultures, new creatures and beings...Everything a reader would love. It is up to the children in this book to find and rescue their father and ultimately rescue the world (which I hope continues in the storyline).
This is a wonderful book for readers of all ages. Though I didn't remember most of the story, I did remember that as a child I couldn't put this book down. It's magical, and L'Engle has such a passion in her writing. She has a passion for literature, for words, for other worlds, for the imagination, and for the power of children.
I read this book as the first book in the Banned Books Challenge. I'm really confused as to why this book would be banned. Most books are banned due to religion or politics, and my closest guess would be religion. There's one passage in the book where Mrs. Whatsit is talking about the many people who have come to Earth trying to fight the shadow that is enclosing Earth. The first she mentions is Jesus and then puts him in the company of DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Shakespeare, Bach, Gandhi, Buddha, Beethoven, etc. I certainly don't think that this merits the book to be banned, but I can see how some extremists may do so.
I felt an especially close bond with this book as I saw L'Engle's obvious love for Shakespeare's The Tempest, my favorite play of his. In fact, when talking to the children, Mrs. Whatsit quotes my favorite quote where the title of this blog is taken from..."We are such stuff as dreams are made on..." And excellent quote to sum up this wonderful story.
3 comments:
I read Wrinkle for the first time this past January for a book club and really enjoyed it. I have to say that I enjoyed the first third of the book the best, but it was still a very good story. I think I was disappointed with the other two thirds was because I instantly loved the way that Charles Wallace spoke and thought and that part of his character was obviously changed/subdued during much of the book because of the circumstances he found himself in. All in all it is a small quibble.
You know, now that you say that, I agree with you. However, I think that in making Charles so loveable at the beginning, we got a really great sense of how Meg must feel with the temporary Charles. Great book though! I'll get to the rest of the series when these challenges are over. Or maybe I'll fit them into the fantasy challenge!
I love that book! I haven't read it in forever, but I liked it a lot! And A Wind in the Door, the next book, was really good.
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