This is the story of Margaret Murry (called Meg) and her younger brother Charles Wallace Murry, and their friend, Calvin. Calvin just shows up one day, out of the blue. Calvin is two years older than Meg, and Charles Wallace is much younger than either of them, but the three children become friends almost immediately.
As the story opens, Meg is very unhappy because she is having trouble in school; she is acting out in classes and is mad at everyone. The real problem is that her father has been missing for over a year, and no one will tell her why, not even her mother. Meg's mother doesn't know where her husband is, and she is trying to hold the family together. Charles Wallace is too young to go to school, and people think that he is mentally slow, and he lets them think that so they will leave him alone.
My thoughts:
The author just jumps into the story and lets the characters tell the story without excessive exposition. That worked well for me. Meg is the point of view character but she does not narrate the story. I loved all three of the main characters, once I got to know them. They had flaws; we all have flaws, even as adults. But they learned from their experiences.
I did not know what to expect from this book. Before I read it, I assumed that it was a fantasy and a time travel book. After reading it, I think it is science fantasy and I did not get any sense of time travel in it. There were a few times when I had difficulty suspending disbelief. Regardless, none of that impacted my enjoyment of the story. Once I got into the book, I was focused most on the characters and character development.
This book is very short, under 200 pages. By the time I was 40 or 50 pages in, I was totally caught up in the story and did not want to stop reading. That, and the fact that I cared about the characters, even when I did not exactly understand what was going on, were my favorite parts.
This is the first book in the Time Quintet; I have a very nice edition of the second book, so I will be reading it sometime.
8 comments:
I agree that all three characters are very likable in different ways. Charles Wallace is a bit too precocious but it is almost believable. I think all the smart little boys in her books are based on L'Engle's own son.
I think when I first read it I was so young I didn't know that "It was a dark and stormy night" line was a cliche. But it sets the scene well! I am glad you liked it so much you want to continue with the series!
I have read this first book but not the series. It's a bit odd right? It's been a while. I like how they call him Charles Wallace. Here are my thoughts of it from 2015 at: https://www.thecuecard.com/?s=wrinkle+in+time
I liked it back then.
Well, as I recall from reading it half a century ago, when I was tearing through the Newbery Award winners and shortlisters (and was never averse to fantastica), L'Engle has one of her aliens describe Wrinkles in Time as a means of faster than light (FTL) travel, essentially instantaneous teleportation. I liked both this one and A WIND IN THE DOOR (perhaps more), was less enthusiastic about the eventual A SWIFTLY TILTING PLANET and that was the last L'Engle I read (I was pretty much reading fiction aimed at adults by then)...when I worked at a Borders Book Shop in the DC suburbs, before that chain collapsed (of course),, a reading by L"Engle was the most popular event we had, rivaled only by the major political figure reading/signing events. The event coordinator really dropped the ball when Marcia Muller came through, and the EC asked me at the last minute to introduce her, and I came out of my back-office job to a crowd of about six, of whom perhaps one other was familiar with her work.
Your photo is of the Dell Laurel-Leaf edition I had ca. 1974, as well...I had their edition of A WIND IN THE DOOR, too. I was fond of the Laurel-Leaf imprint as a kid...a better batting average (by me) than even Signet Classics or Scholastic's paperback line, or Harper Trophy or Dell Yearling books, which all had good batting averages by me from ages 8-11 yo.
A classic and I have only read that first book.
This book is a classic and I tried to read it a few years ago but never got very far. I'm not much of a fantasy science fiction reader but your review encourages me to go further with this book. I may have abandoned it too early.
This is another one of those books I've always heard about but never read. I assume it can be a stand-alone since I never hear about the others that follow it.
My 5th grade teacher read this book to my class and I loved it...then and now! It's one of my favs. :D
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