A Wrinkle In Time

"It was a dark and stormy night."

Think Snoopy? You thought wrong.

This familiar first line begins one of the most cherished books from my childhood. Today, as a writer, I can pick out errors in the writing, but it doesn't take away from the magic of the book that I fell in love with at a young age.

The book tells the story of a young girl named Meg who is unpopular and belligerent at school. With a beautiful, brilliant scientist mother, two average, happy brothers and Charles Wallace, a child prodigy who refuses to talk to strangers, she feels lost and inferior. She is constantly teased about Charles Wallace "the idiot" (though he is anything but), her looks and the fact that her father has been missing for over a year. Then one day, a certain Mrs. Whatsit blows into their house and Meg is sent on a journey to find her father.

This book was so powerful to me in my young life and I still enjoy reading it, though it might be considered a children's book. The story and the characters are just so endearing. The end made me cry and yet I was smiling the whole way through.

I highly recommend this book. Though it does have its literary errors (it tells rather than shows quite frequently) it is still a most wonderful story of love and courage.

~GryphonFledgling

This book has always been my first love of science fiction I highly recommend it to anyone.

On a slightly smaller note, I've always loved how Meg's mother cooks dinner in her laboratory!

What is there to say? L'Engle is a genius, and I've always loved this book. My favorite line: "It's not just the weather: it's the weather on top of everything else on top of me." <so often my sentiment (not always weather, though, of course).

If readers enjoyed this, please also see A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet, the second two in the trilogy. I haven't read Planet recently, but I love Wind, and especially the way L'Engle does cherubim (in a word: properly!). I :heart: Progo. And the Mrs.'s W's. And Calvin. And...well, you get the idea.

Whoa, what? There are sequels? *feels totally out of the loop*

I must look those up...

I read this book very early on in my life and it's definitely stuck with me, I still read it every now and again and find it just as good as I did the first time. It's a classic: well written characters you can sympathise with and an important and enduring message. I think I'd disagree with your assessment of its literary errors, actually - I'd count it one of L'Engle's strengths that she can 'tell' difficult mathematical/scientific and other information without breaking the flow of the story.

Definitely worth reading, definitely worth reading again.

This is just one of those book you can't help but remember, and it explained the string theory better than any of my textbooks so far. I think I found it so powerful as a child, because it was about things that all children can relate to, and I believe it was the book that began my science fiction obsession.