A Wrinkle in Time

by Madeleine L'Engle
5 out of 5 stars

Another of my all time favorites when I was young and impressionable. It is the candle to which I hold all others of its genre (does that make sense?). Case in point: Harry Potter: Wonderful book/series, but after I read the first one I thought, "Hmf. It was good, but it's no Wrinkle in Time." That's what I mean. Wrinkle in Time was the first science fiction book I think I ever read, and I didn't even realize it was science fiction at the time. I just thought it was a fantastic story, I loved that the hero was a girl, and I remember feeling so transported into the story, I wanted to be Meg, or at least be her sidekick and help her. I also pined for a genius little brother named Charles Wallace. I don't know why, but it was years later that I discovered L'Engle had written other books about this family (A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters), and years after devouring them all that I actually got to meet L'Engle at a book talk at a local church (so when I say meet, I really got to talk to her!). (Sigh)

I suspect this is a book that you could enjoy just as well, if not more, as a grownup. Though I have to admit, I've put off re reading it, because I don't want to risk spoiling the magic.

I was never bothered by what some say are heavy religious influences in her work. In fact, I don't think I even noticed any. I do remember being intrigued by all the math and science (and I was never what you would call mathy or sciency!) in her books -- tesseracts, for example, in A Wrinkle in Time, mitochondrial DNA in A Wind in the Door, and organ regeneration in The Arm of the Starfish. Neat.