A Review of 'A Wrinkle in Time' by Madeleine L'Engle

"It was a dark and stormy night.

Out of this wild night, a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on the most dangerous and extraordinary adventure-- one that will threaten their lives and our universe.

Winner of the 1963 Newberry Medal, A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L'Engle's classic Time Quintet."

One of the things I've been doing during the week while balancing homework, class, and two jobs is volunteering in a fifth grade classroom.  I tutor in math and I run this project called the Mystery Class, which is a project that helps us figure out where certain schools are in the world based on the number of hours of day light they report.  It's cool.  Another thing that I do is run two reading groups.  There's a group of four girls and they read this one.  For the most part, they enjoyed it.  It was a very different reading experience for them, I think.  Especially after reading Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.

This was even a different reading experience for me.  I don't read a lot of science fiction, and I feel like this book dipped into the science fiction realm quite a lot, what with all of the "wrinkling" (time and space traveling) that they did.  Even though this is science fiction, I genre I haven't had a lot of luck with liking, this was wonderful.  It had a good amount of elements that you'll typically find in a coming of age book-- self-discovery, growth through some kinds of hardship, and a more mature character by the end of the book.  Traveling from planet to planet in search of Meg and Charles Wallace's father helped them grow and learn.

I like that this book wasn't afraid to give young readers the concept of time travel and attempt to explain it (in theory) as well.  Madeleine L'Engle sure gives her readers a lot of credit, which I absolutely love.  She knows that her readers are intelligent people who just want to become more intelligent.  I like that A Wrinkle in Time presents challenges for young and older readers alike.  I had as much fun reading this book as the fifth graders did.  We can't wait to read more of the books in this series!

I give A Wrinkle in Time:

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Thanks for Reading!

--Jude