A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet, #1)

by Madeleine L'Engle

Ngadi Smart (Illustrator)

Puffin Classics: the definitive collection of timeless stories, for every child.

We can't take any credit for our talents. It's how we use them that counts.

When Charles and Meg Murry go searching through a 'wrinkle in time' for their lost father, they find themselves on an evil planet where all life is enslaved by a huge pulsating brain known as 'It'.

Meg, Charles and their friend Calvin embark on a cosmic journey helped by the funny and mysterious trio of guardian angels, Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which. Together they must find the weapon that will defeat It.

A groundbreaking and inspiring story of travel through time and space to battle a cosmic evil which has sold millions of copies and transformed children's literature. Winner of the Newbery Medal.

• ISBN10: 0141354933
• ISBN13: 9780141354934
• Publish Date: 3 July 2014 (first published 1 January 1962)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Children's UK
• Imprint: Puffin Classics
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[CrowNoYami]

 I really enjoyed this book. While Meg isn't my favourite character, in fact, I don't think I even have a favourite character, this novel inspires so much adventure and takes you on a whole journey. I love the world created, so similar to our own but yet different. While I'm probably not going to read the next in the series as I feel this book was concluded nicely, I do believe that this book is something you can read at any age and enjoy. 4.5 Stars 

[cherryblossommj]

I read this story, what seems like forever ago, and really remember enjoying Madeleine L'Engle. I know I continued off and read other stories that included Meg as characters. Meg was always special to me as I too am a Margaret. This year, we just finished listening to a borrowed audiobook of A Wrinkle in Time as suggested by the Memoria Press Fifth Grade Classical Core Curriculum lesson plans for a read aloud. My kids mostly really enjoyed the story overall, especially my actual fifth grader. We have a leatherbound edition of the quartet and I'm curious to see if she is peaked to continue the series.

[cornerfolds]

Read more of my reviews at Cornerfolds.com!

*Review to come!*

Actual rating: 1.5 stars

[celinenyx]

Sadly, more nay than yay. I friggin' love science, and any middle-grade/YA book that sciences the stuffing out of me deserves a ton of praise. What I, however, do NOT like is a little science flavour to wet the palate for a whole steaming heap of thinly veiled religious epistemology.

Tesseracting? Awesome! Jumping from one world to another and meeting non-human creatures is fantastic. I even liked the tiny bit where they go to a two-dimensional world, a nice nod to Flatland. I didn't care however for Meg as a main character. To be clear here, I like her spunk. I like how she pushes against people, but I still felt that her characterization was flat and she was not allowed to be her awesome self within the plot. Charles Whatever was horribly annoying and I did not understand Meg's unconditional love for her baby brother at all. Worse, the climax of the book completely revolves around Meg "loving" her brother, in an awfully contrived and illogical situation (why are the Mrs W's suddenly so commanding? why is it too dangerous now while it wasn't before?). It all read horribly Hallmark, and not even in the nice comfortable-cozy kind of way.

A Wrinkle in Time, to me, was like being force-fed a love-conquers-all-evil ideology with continuous references to God, Jesus, and more God; the bits of Einstein sprinkled in really didn't do much to rescue it.

Also, saying that it's a children's book doesn't excuse its black and white morality - plenty of children's books deal with good and evil in a wonderfully subtle way. Nor is it "simply a book of its time". Within all time periods authors have resisted dichotomous explanations; L'Engle was not one of them.

[Heather]

I have a vague recollection of DNFing this as a kid because it was boring.

I decided I had to read it before the movie came out. Turns out I still think it is really boring and I seem to viscerally hate Meg.

I'll probably still see the movie because I like Ava Duvernay's work. Hopefully she can make something good out of this.

[Berls]

3.5 stars

So the last time I read this I was in middle school... maybe high school. I don't remember too clearly. I do, however, remember LOVING the book. So, naturally, when I saw that they're making a new movie I was like, let's do a reread. I had forgotten so much and I wanted to really remember it before watching the movie.

I don't regret rereading it. But it's not the book I remembered either. I think that the important thing to remember about A Wrinkle in Time is that it really was written before YA books were written for both young adult AND adult audiences. This was so clearly for kids that I'm actually marking it as both a YA and a Middle Grade. It's not one that make the transference to Adult interest well. Not that it's poorly written or anything, it's just not a book for adults. It has some incredibly obvious themes and messages that are clearly written to impress upon young minds. So that makes it less thrilling as an adult reader.

HOWEVER, I love those themes and think that finding them in a book for young adults - especially in our day and age - is a great thing. The messages are not outdated, kids today can MOST DEFINITELY benefit from them (maybe more so than kids when it was written). I do wonder if kids today will keep up with some of the educational trivia bits - the kids in this book are SMART cookies and solve some difficult math/science problems off the top of their head.

And the story is a fun read. Nothing that's going to have you on the edge of your seat, but for one of the first books of it's kind, the Sci-Fi & Fantasy mix you have going on in this book is just fun. And that's why - despite feeling that the book is targeted to younger readers more than I remembered - I will still plan to watch the movie :)

As a side note, I read this as an audiobook and while the narration was good, it was SLOW. I listened to the entire thing at 3x speed because it was at such a slow pace. Of course, I listen to most audiobooks at a 2x speed, so it may not seem THAT slow to those who don't do that with their books. Otherwise the narration was good - I enjoyed the voices and really got lost in the story.

So if you, like me, want to take a walk down memory road, go for it! Just know, you're reading a kids book :)

[Rinn]

I think that if I had read this when I was 10 years old, it would be one of my lifelong favourites.

[mrs_mander_reads]

Definitely my favorite YA, I wrote my undergrad thesis on this book and it's formative powers for young adults. I think it's genius, and every time I read it, it teaches me something new about life. Definitely a must for any age. We all have a little Meg Murray in us.

5/1/17: Reread for the PopSugar reading challenge. I still love this book.

[layawaydragon]

* Loved it, wish I had read it as a child.
* Eh, not loving the god bits and the Disney fairytale lesson but I doubt I would've cared as a child.
* Reading the foreword was illuminating. Because while I had heard great things about this book and knew it was a classic—no lie—I couldn't be bothered to look it up. First, it was I just thought I missed the age range when I was a teen. Then I was distracted by all the books. When it finally gifted it's way onto by bookshelf, I finally had to admit how apprehensive I was due to bad experience with other classics. Since I've been struggling to review anything lately, I finally said "screw it". I figured worst case scenario I'd "forget" about reviewing it.

That sure shows me!

[adamfortuna]

Would've enjoyed this one a lot more if I read it when I was a kid.