A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, is the first science fantasy novel I ever read, starting my love of sci-fi. First published in 1962, this book won a Newbery Medal, Sequoyah Book Award, and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-up for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. It is the first in the Time Quartet books - the other 3 books are: A Wind in the Door (1973), A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978) and Many Waters (1986)
The book begins with the infamous line, "It was a dark and stormy night."
Teenage Meg Murry has a bad-temper; her family recognizes her problem as a lack of emotional maturity but think she can do great things. The family includes her mother - a scientist - her scientist father - who is missing in action - her five year-old brother Charles Wallace — a nascent super-genius — and her 10-year-old twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys.
During the stormy night the Murrys are visited by Mrs. Whatsit - and we later meet Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which - who tells an already perplexed Dr. Murry that
"there is such a thing as a tesseract."
A tesseract is the fifth-dimensional analog of a cube refers to a scientific concept Meg's father was working on before his mysterious disappearance. It is explained as a fifth-dimensional phenomenon similar to folding the fabric of time and space.
The 3 ladies W transport Meg, Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin, through the tesseract, to find Mr. Murry. This begins a wild trip through time and space.
This was one of my favorite books when I was 10 years old, and another book I bought when my children were younger. This is the book cover my children remember, although I remember the cover noted with the 1at photo. The 2nd photo is the original cover from 1962.This is a great read-aloud book and would be good for a class read, giving teachers math and science to incorporate with reading time.
Loved seeing the cover of the book. I read this one quickly but of course cherish the first line and also the fact that this book unraveled E=mc2 for me. Read aloud? Excellent idea!
ReplyDeleteI loved this book too when I was a kid. It was one of the books that made me want to be a writer. Another book that made me want to be a writer was Alice in Wonderland. Something about the magic of another world where anything could happen
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