Good morning, friends. For a University class last year, I wrote a series of annotations on children’s books I cherish. I learned so much from reading and reflecting and would like to share with you all. In a world in which so much is dark and painful, children’s literature, the wisest literature in the library, is an burning and a shining light. We continue our series with:
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
“A Wrinkle in Time,” a classic science fiction/fantasy children’s novel (L’Engle, Madeleine. MacMillan. 1962) tells the story of three children who are Different From Everybody Else. Young Charles is an extraordinarily gifted five year old whose vocabulary, mental capacity, emotional depth, and wisdom easily outstrip most adults. Margaret “Meg” is equally brilliant and gifted, but she struggles in school because it bores her and because she doesn’t think many of the things taught in school are important. Calvin, the third child, is a popular figure in school, but comes from an unhappy home where he does not feel loved and cared about.
Although Meg and Charles are from a deeply affectionate home where they are loved and wanted, their home is a sorrowful one. Their beloved and wise Father was working on a top secret mission for the government when he mysteriously disappeared without a trace. His absence has led to unkind and distressing gossip from the community, further making life painful for Meg in school. Meg and Charles feel themselves to be outcasts; Calvin only feels that he fits in when he purposely conforms to social norms. When he meets Meg and Charles, and their brilliant scientist mother, he feels for the first time a sense of belonging.
With the help of three Very Eccentric but Very Wise friends, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, the children go on a journey that spans time and space in a quest to save not only their beloved father, but their beautiful world. They learn on their journey that the very qualities that make them different from their peers give them the strength to withstand the terrible overwhelming evil they must face in order to rescue their father. Their strengths are in their love and loyalty to one another. They meet companions along the way who help, and they meet terrifying enemies. But in the end, they escape IT and tesser back home again.
“A Wrinkle in Time” won the 1963 Newbery Medal.
“A Wrinkle in Time” was certainly intended for a young audience, but readers of all ages and stages of life can find something to love and relate to in this book. Many of the themes, particularly those themes of needing a place to belong, learning to see one's weaknesses and flaws as a source of strength, the great battle between good and evil, and the strength that can be drawn from friendship, are universal themes applicable to all ages.
The only illustrations in the book were those that demonstrated complicated concepts. The concept of traveling through space by tessering was illustrated by a skirt folded up so that an ant could cross a large distance quickly. I found the illustrations helped me to picture the journey that Meg and her friends took.
I think this book could be used in a classroom as an example of classic sci-fi. As the science therein was based on Einsteinian science, it might be useful as an illustration for advanced science as well.
The texts’ greatest strengths were a deep insight into the feelings and struggles and point of view of young people. There was a lyrical quality to the prose that made the words sing on the page. The world building was exemplary. The dialogue was a bit old fashioned but it flowed and was delightful. I believe that the book was banned from some libraries because of the use of religious texts (there are many passages from the New Testament cited) and references to Jesus, our Lord, and these may be considered weaknesses by other commentators, but as a Christian reader, I love them.
One of the best bits of the book for me was an interview with the author. She describes knowing that she was a writer ever since she could write, just as I did. She earned a degree in English from Smith, and went on to become an actor as well as a playwright. L’Engle based her characters upon her own family.
My reaction and response to “A Wrinkle in Time” was profound wonder and amazement, deep and abiding joy, and a bit of sadness that I didn’t find this book much earlier in my life. To discover this book as an adult was one of the most precious of gifts. To share with friends who had read it and were deeply moved by it was another great gift. I found that the insights into Meg and Charles’ view of their father, as a fallible and frail human being who resisted evil with all his strength but who could not always protect them from danger, was particularly meaningful to me as a parent. The theme of the struggle between good and evil, the vivid demonstrations that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against spiritual wickedness, against the rulers of darkness in high places” was particularly timely for me, as an adult who is sometimes too worn down by the day to day workload to take those larger eternal verities to heart. We need those reminders at every age.
This is a book I will cherish forever and will read again and again.