A Wrinkle in Time (1962)
Written by: Madeleine L’Engle Genre: Science Fantasy/Young Adult Pages: 228 (Paperback)

Publisher: Macmillan

Why I Chose This: I missed out on this classic while growing up, so my 2018 Resolution Project was to read the book before the movie is released in March. Success!

The premise:

It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.

“Wild nights are my glory,” the unearthly stranger told them. “I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I’ll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.”

A tesseract (in case the reader doesn’t know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L’Engle’s unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O’Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg’s father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.

A Wrinkle in Time is the winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal.

No spoilers below!

One of the fascinating things about reading “The Greats” in a genre, especially those published decades ago, is seeing the origins of common tropes as they breath life into the pages of a book. The quest narrative of A Wrinkle in Time featuring the teenage girl full of angst because she’s pretty and smart but no one realizes it, the precocious younger brother, and the SpecialTM boy next door weren’t yet tropes at the time L’Engle wrote this tale, and it’s a shame my younger self missed out on discovering this adventure without the baggage of age, experience and a whole lot of other books under my belt.

Dragonlance books looked a lot more friendly to this nerdy 11-year-old.

Reading this novel now, at 34, and loving every bit of the planet-hopping science-fantasy of this book makes me wonder why I missed this book during my middle school years. Searching for a copy to buy to complete my 2018 Resolution Project instantly reminded me. The book on the library shelves back then was the creepy copy with the terrifying flying centaur, which fit right in with the other science-fiction artwork commonly featured on novels at the time. Having now experienced Mrs Whatsit in her alien form through the book itself, rather than judging the cover, it turns out she wasn’t so terrifying after all.

In fact, the descriptive imagery of this novel, of alien worlds and beings and a fantastical method of travel, holds up extraordinarily well in this age of fancy CGI movies and immersive video games. For me, the only aspect of this novel that didn’t hold up is Meg’s personality. Her teenage angst becomes lost in her melodrama and shrillness, and her superiority gets old fast. I’m excited to read later books in this series, but I hope that her immediate initial responses to future amazing experiences don’t continue to boil down to “different = scary” and “how humans do things = the best way.”

The version of the text that I read included an introductory essay that put some elements of the plot into context for the modern reader, which I was glad for. However, this book does not get lost in time. The lack of individuality on Camazotz as a representation of fear of communism continues to be relevant in the current ongoing battle against authoritarianism, over 50 years after the book’s initial publication.

In conclusion: I was already excited for the film adaptation to be released in a few weeks (see above RE: my love of planet-hopping science fantasy), but now I can’t wait to see the story I just read brought to life. I have faith in the changes director Ava DuVernay might make to update the story and increase its relevance in this more modern age. Hopefully other young readers will be inspired to check out the book now, rather than coming to this delightful world 20+ years late.

Featured image source: NewEvolution