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leo_likes_books's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
rockatanskette's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
kathydavie's review against another edition
4.0
A young adult adventurous time traveling story in the sci-fi universe.
In 1965, A Wrinkle in Time won the Oklahoma Sequoyah Award, and in 1963 it won the Newbery Medal. In 1964, it was nominated for the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award.
My Take
A brilliant and very intelligent exploration of time/space travel for three children on a mission to rescue their father and save the world with a sideways observation of how losing a parent affects a child.
L'Engle incorporates a good bit from Shakespeare from sonnets to the three witches who toil and trouble as well as a Mrs. Who who speaks primarily in quotations with just a hint of Beatrix Potter. There is an underlying story of it's okay to be different.
The beginning of the story introduces us to the underlying issues affecting the members of the household and setting us up for its main premise. L'Engle does provide a nice explanation of the five dimensions as well as one for those who throughout history have fought the darkness on our planet.
As enjoyable as the story was, the purpose for which the "stars" traveled with Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin is rather vague. L'Engle also left a couple of loose threads: what happened with the beasts and were the residents of Camazotz freed?
The Story
It's a series of encounters as we meet the important family members with their strengths and fears, the traveling entities so interested in their actions, and the neighbor with an extra gift...just as Charles Wallace has a gift. All very carefully mysterious as L'Engle entices us further down the path.
The wrinkle in time that takes us further from our own world into an Orwellian nightmare of a planet in which a shadow of darkness is sucking away individuality and threatening the Earth. The warning that Charles Wallace does not heed.
And home with a sadder and wiser Meg.
The Characters
Mrs. Murry has been holding the homefront together for some time as she waits for her husband Dr. Murry to return from his top-secret mission for the government. The children, Charles Wallace is the youngest with the most flexible, discerning mind and Meg is the oldest with massive impatience and a mathematical outlook while Dennys and Sandy are the sports-minded, normalest ten-year-old twins. Fortinbras is their rescued dog.
Calvin O'Keefe is also different, and an older classmate of Meg's. He confesses that he gets compulsions and has learned to not avoid them.
Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Who are transient ladies who have arrived in time to take the children to accomplish, I think, the rescue of their father. Medium provides a homey interruption for the children to "call" home.
IT is the brain that runs the entire planet of Camazotz. Aunt Beast is a a member of the species on whose planet Dr. Murry, Meg, and Calvin land when he tessers them away from Camazotz.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a collage of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which as they soar over a fence-post-like landscape crossed by centaurs. Within this, there is an arched window in which the children are visible with a robed and turbaned figure holding a globe of a vision over its head.
The title refers to how the stars travel. Instead of a straight line which could take forever, they use A Wrinkle in Time. A fold which shortens the distance.
In 1965, A Wrinkle in Time won the Oklahoma Sequoyah Award, and in 1963 it won the Newbery Medal. In 1964, it was nominated for the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award.
My Take
A brilliant and very intelligent exploration of time/space travel for three children on a mission to rescue their father and save the world with a sideways observation of how losing a parent affects a child.
L'Engle incorporates a good bit from Shakespeare from sonnets to the three witches who toil and trouble as well as a Mrs. Who who speaks primarily in quotations with just a hint of Beatrix Potter. There is an underlying story of it's okay to be different.
The beginning of the story introduces us to the underlying issues affecting the members of the household and setting us up for its main premise. L'Engle does provide a nice explanation of the five dimensions as well as one for those who throughout history have fought the darkness on our planet.
As enjoyable as the story was, the purpose for which the "stars" traveled with Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin is rather vague. L'Engle also left a couple of loose threads: what happened with the beasts and were the residents of Camazotz freed?
The Story
It's a series of encounters as we meet the important family members with their strengths and fears, the traveling entities so interested in their actions, and the neighbor with an extra gift...just as Charles Wallace has a gift. All very carefully mysterious as L'Engle entices us further down the path.
The wrinkle in time that takes us further from our own world into an Orwellian nightmare of a planet in which a shadow of darkness is sucking away individuality and threatening the Earth. The warning that Charles Wallace does not heed.
And home with a sadder and wiser Meg.
The Characters
Mrs. Murry has been holding the homefront together for some time as she waits for her husband Dr. Murry to return from his top-secret mission for the government. The children, Charles Wallace is the youngest with the most flexible, discerning mind and Meg is the oldest with massive impatience and a mathematical outlook while Dennys and Sandy are the sports-minded, normalest ten-year-old twins. Fortinbras is their rescued dog.
Calvin O'Keefe is also different, and an older classmate of Meg's. He confesses that he gets compulsions and has learned to not avoid them.
Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Who are transient ladies who have arrived in time to take the children to accomplish, I think, the rescue of their father. Medium provides a homey interruption for the children to "call" home.
IT is the brain that runs the entire planet of Camazotz. Aunt Beast is a a member of the species on whose planet Dr. Murry, Meg, and Calvin land when he tessers them away from Camazotz.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a collage of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which as they soar over a fence-post-like landscape crossed by centaurs. Within this, there is an arched window in which the children are visible with a robed and turbaned figure holding a globe of a vision over its head.
The title refers to how the stars travel. Instead of a straight line which could take forever, they use A Wrinkle in Time. A fold which shortens the distance.
carlyxdeexx's review against another edition
4.0
Last time I read this book, I was likely in the middle school library, and I likely thought it was wonderful and then didn’t think much else of it. If you asked me a few days ago about my favorite books from when I was a middle schooler, this wouldn’t have been the first to come to mind.
Now that the movie’s coming out, I thought revisiting the book would be a good idea, and I’m happy I did. It’s a short and sweet yet sweeping story, covering grand themes of love and faith and self-worth while keeping all of the characters and their relationships very accessible and matter-of-fact. I wouldn’t say it’s particularly nuanced in its explorations of these concepts, but I also can’t say I expected that from this particular book, given its age and its audience. It was direct, slightly elevated, and overall just nice/nostalgic to read, evocative of C. S. Lewis’s CHRONICLES OF NARNIA in that regard, as well as its entwining of Christianity with fantasy/sci-fi elements. Phillip Pullman’s HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy does this, too, in a much more similar way, but I think Lewis and L’Engle share more of a similar voice.
If I could give this 3.5 stars, I would. I like it less than Pullman’s series and more than Lewis’s overall, though there are sequels, and I vaguely remember MANY WATERS being a favorite of my younger self. I chose 4 since it just felt good to read this book again after so long. I didn’t remember much of it at all, but reading it felt delightfully comforting and familiar.
Now that the movie’s coming out, I thought revisiting the book would be a good idea, and I’m happy I did. It’s a short and sweet yet sweeping story, covering grand themes of love and faith and self-worth while keeping all of the characters and their relationships very accessible and matter-of-fact. I wouldn’t say it’s particularly nuanced in its explorations of these concepts, but I also can’t say I expected that from this particular book, given its age and its audience. It was direct, slightly elevated, and overall just nice/nostalgic to read, evocative of C. S. Lewis’s CHRONICLES OF NARNIA in that regard, as well as its entwining of Christianity with fantasy/sci-fi elements. Phillip Pullman’s HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy does this, too, in a much more similar way, but I think Lewis and L’Engle share more of a similar voice.
If I could give this 3.5 stars, I would. I like it less than Pullman’s series and more than Lewis’s overall, though there are sequels, and I vaguely remember MANY WATERS being a favorite of my younger self. I chose 4 since it just felt good to read this book again after so long. I didn’t remember much of it at all, but reading it felt delightfully comforting and familiar.
whimsicalmeerkat's review against another edition
5.0
I sought out my mom's copy of this book after hearing part of the first chapter read on NPR. I subsequently read every other thing written by Madelein L'Engle I could find. What can I say, I read voraciously in middle school. What else was there to do?
whimsicalmeerkat's review against another edition
5.0
So beautiful and enlivening and gentle all rolled into one lovely package. I love this just as much now as when I first read it as a child. Perhaps more. Definitely in a different way seasoned by all the living I have done since I first read it.
is_it_chris's review against another edition
3.0
i liked it, but i think seeing the movie first messed me up. :( it was really fun seeing the movie with mama though.
mariahistryingtoread's review against another edition
2.0
I read A Wrinkle in Time when I was a kid. I wanted to read it again when I saw the movie a few years back because the movie wasn’t very good and I wanted to compare. I never got around to it as I believe I was still in the midst of my years-long reading slump at that point. From my recollection as a child the book was fairly confusing though enjoyable. I assumed by re-reading it I would understand more now that I am an adult. I now can see what I found to be confusing as a child was me projecting some deeper meaning onto the story than there actually was and presuming that I was not getting it.
While there are some heavy concepts present, the book is not so bogged down in scientific rhetoric that I would consider it a problem. It could be a turn off for kids, however, as the introduction in my audiobook stated L’Engle didn’t ever actually consider this a kids book so that’s a modern day demographic categorization issue more than anything.
I don’t actually have much to say, good or bad. I expected to like it more because it was special to me as a kid and it’s widely praised. I found it stronger at the beginning when the mystery had yet to unfold. As it began to unwind it became significantly less interesting as it settled into a very basic rescue story. And when I say basic I mean white-tee-blue-jeans level basic. They only travel to one place at which point they almost immediately resolve the main point of the journey. There is only one other location on this little excursion. There are no clever puzzles or interesting tricks or really anything fun to figure out. When it’s not dabbling in discussions of high concept scientific theory the book feels as if its sole purpose is to push L’Engle’s ideological beliefs onto the reader.
It’s not a bad belief system - the idea that love can conquer all - however, there are better, more entertaining, less obvious ways to weave a message into a story. The characters often function as little more than pawns as everyone outside of Meg does not progress in any way. This is especially true for Charles Wallace whose whole schtick is purposely designed to make him a better vessel to perpetuate the agenda.
So, all in all I would recommend this just to experience some of the hype, but I would say definitely manage your expectations as much as you can. I like it well enough. It’s just not as mysterious or magical as it appears to be at the outset.
While there are some heavy concepts present, the book is not so bogged down in scientific rhetoric that I would consider it a problem. It could be a turn off for kids, however, as the introduction in my audiobook stated L’Engle didn’t ever actually consider this a kids book so that’s a modern day demographic categorization issue more than anything.
I don’t actually have much to say, good or bad. I expected to like it more because it was special to me as a kid and it’s widely praised. I found it stronger at the beginning when the mystery had yet to unfold. As it began to unwind it became significantly less interesting as it settled into a very basic rescue story. And when I say basic I mean white-tee-blue-jeans level basic. They only travel to one place at which point they almost immediately resolve the main point of the journey. There is only one other location on this little excursion. There are no clever puzzles or interesting tricks or really anything fun to figure out. When it’s not dabbling in discussions of high concept scientific theory the book feels as if its sole purpose is to push L’Engle’s ideological beliefs onto the reader.
It’s not a bad belief system - the idea that love can conquer all - however, there are better, more entertaining, less obvious ways to weave a message into a story. The characters often function as little more than pawns as everyone outside of Meg does not progress in any way. This is especially true for Charles Wallace whose whole schtick is purposely designed to make him a better vessel to perpetuate the agenda.
So, all in all I would recommend this just to experience some of the hype, but I would say definitely manage your expectations as much as you can. I like it well enough. It’s just not as mysterious or magical as it appears to be at the outset.