From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet, #1)

Madeleine L'Engle

Start date: July 15, 2016

Finish date: August 14, 2016

Discussion: Children's Classics Buddy Reads

Discussion leader: Gem

Why we're reading this: YA Group Read Selected by Gem
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What Members Thought

Sep 11, 2015 Sara rated it really liked it

I wish I had read this when I was young. I really can't think why I didn't. It has many of the elements that make stories appeal to young readers...magic, time travel, the unpopular smart kid. It is a fun story that would have appeal at that level alone.

What I saw beneath the story, however, were some important ideas and points that all childen and many adults need to hear over and over again. Different is not less; being the same might seem more comfortable, but it is limiting. The idea that h ...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Audrey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: all-time-favorites, own-hard-copy, classics, science-fantasy, 2024-misc-books

When I was 10 years old, in 6th grade, I became very depressed (mostly because of an abusive teacher), and my dad happened to give me this book. It became my escape, and I read it over and over. I counted 14 before the end of high school.

Some of Calvin’s dialogue confused me at that age, and it still does. I guess it’s a slang I’m not familiar with. I always found the beginning of the book a little slow but the later chapters absolutely terrifying. The creativity captivated me, and I felt a real ...more

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Feb 27, 2015 Christine PNW rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: vintage-women

I decided to reread after seeing the new Ava DuVernay adaptation with my daughter. I read the book as a child of the 1970's - probably a bit more than decade or so after the initial 1963 publication, around 1977, when I was 11. I fell in love with the book then, seeing much of myself in Meg Murry, the ordinary, often grumpy, young woman. I revisited L'Engle in 2015, and found that, while some of her books had not held up with reread, many of them did.

A Wrinkle in Time is a bit of a period piece, I decided to reread after seeing the new Ava DuVernay adaptation with my daughter. I read the book as a child of the 1970's - probably a bit more than decade or so after the initial 1963 publication, around 1977, when I was 11. I fell in love with the book then, seeing much of myself in Meg Murry, the ordinary, often grumpy, young woman. I revisited L'Engle in 2015, and found that, while some of her books had not held up with reread, many of them did.

A Wrinkle in Time is a bit of a period piece, to be sure. Girls today are stronger, more self-aware, more cognizant of the pressures of an often sexist society, and more willing to buck convention in order to be authentic to themselves. Not all girls, of course, but some girls. Our culture, today, at least struggles to understand these pressures and to acknowledge that they exist. This book is part of my personal canon, one of the books that shaped my childhood and had a part in making me who I am today.

Even so, the DuVernay adaptation succeeds in a way that, after reading ALOT of L'Engle, and a fair amount about L'Engle, I believe that she would appreciate. Meg Murry as a biracial young woman was an inspired decision, the relocation of the plot to a more diverse location in California, the addition of Charles Wallace as an adopted child, to me really work to illuminate some of the themes that L'Engle was writing about - alienation and social conformity in particular.

There are parts of the book that are quite different from the movie, of course. In the book, the Murry's have two additional children, a set of male twins who are effortlessly socially competent. They are capable of fulfilling society's expectations with little work. Meg, on the other hand, is prickly, defensive, occasionally angry, and fearsomely intelligent - all things which 1963 America couldn't really cope with in girls. Heck, we still struggle with girls who are prickly, defensive, occasionally angry and fearsomely intelligent.

A Wrinkle in Time shines light into dark places. For that alone, it's worth reading. ...more

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May 08, 2014 Eva Siagian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Saya menyukai cerita ini. Di laman depan ada apresiasi dari Anna Quindlen. Saya menyukai apresiasinya. Terbayang buku ini merupakan suatu kenangan bagi seorang anak, entah kenapa menumbuhkan keinginan saya selain membaca buku ini, juga kembali mengoleksi buku2 fantasi.. aduhhh itu akan menyenangkan. Meski saya tidak tahu apa kegunaannya :p

Untuk cerita ini saya menyukai ide2 science yang dikemukakan, cukup masuk akal dan.. penjelasannya tepat sekali.. "rasanya aku memahaminya sekelebat, tapi tida ...more

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Feb 02, 2012 Sydney rated it liked it

Reread for August 2016's Never Too Late to Read the Classics YA Read

Well, I got tricked into reading a Christianity themed YA! I wanted to reread this anyway since I rated it two stars when I was 19. I can't say I enjoyed it too much more now, but I can appreciate its special strange kind of YA fantasy. I also liked the heroine, who was not always strong and threw defeated temper tantrums as a believable 12 y/o would in this kind of situation.

On the not so great side, it ended very abruptly. I ...more

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