wrinkle in time book review

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A wrinkle in time, common sense media reviewers.

Classic sci-fi story still inspires and gets kids thinking.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

This book contains lots of science, but more impor

There are many important themes in A Wrinkle in Ti

The book is chock full of great role models. Meg i

The book has suspense and a few scary moments. The

Mild flirtation and a kiss.

Educational Value

This book contains lots of science, but more importantly, it's a great way to discuss topics of conformity and individuality.

Positive Messages

There are many important themes in A Wrinkle in Time : the importance of friendship, loyalty and individuality chief among them. This book celebrates kids who are a bit different, it sends positive messages about thinking for yourself and about the bonds of siblings.

Positive Role Models

The book is chock full of great role models. Meg is a strong, persuasive and brave heroine. Her mother is a scientist. Her friend Calvin is a model of loyalty and her brother Charles Wallace an example of how cool you can be if you aren't typically "cool."

Violence & Scariness

The book has suspense and a few scary moments. The children confront an evil, disembodied brain that controls a planet.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that A Wrinkle in Time is one of the great works of literature for kids. Besides being an exciting story, its messages of individuality, nonconformity, friendship and courage have inspired generations of readers. This is a wonderful book for kids who've ever felt "different" or lonely or who have wrestled with loss. It celebrates the power of individuality, bravery, and love. It's been adapted for the screen twice, once as a 2004 TV movie and once in 2018 as a big-budget Disney blockbuster . There's a good audiobook version read by Hope Davis.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

Parents say (31)
Kids say (103)

Based on 31 parent reviews

Beautiful, thought-provoking, and charming...except for when it's not (don't let bad reviews scare you, this works for many personalities, read on to see if you're a match)

What's the story.

In A WRINKLE IN TIME, Meg's father, an eminent physicist, has been missing for two years. One night a strange old woman, Mrs. Whatsit, appears, "blown off course" while she, along with Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which, was tessering, or taking a shortcut through time and space. They take Meg, her little brother Charles Wallace, and their new friend Calvin, to rescue Dr. Murry, who is a prisoner on a planet ruled by IT, a giant pulsating brain that controls the minds of everyone on the planet. Charles Wallace also falls under IT's control, and when Meg finds her father, she discovers that he is not the invincible protector she thought he was. She must not only come to terms with this realization, but find a way to rescue them both.

Is It Any Good?

For many children, reading this book is a turning point in their intellectual lives, opening to them worlds of science and literary complexity. Those who like action and adventure enjoy its science fiction story, filled with strange creatures and Meg's showdown with IT. Preteens of both sexes can relate to the coming-of-age theme, with a hint of romance, and commentary on the value of individuality over conformity. And kids who aren't terribly popular enjoy watching an outcast become a hero, and doing so by finding that her faults are also her strengths.

Grown scientists who read A Wrinkle in Time as a child recall it as being the first book that encouraged openness to imaginative speculation, the root of all scientific inquiry and creativity. Parents who want to expose their children to women and girls who are passionate about math and science would do well to slip their child a copy of this book. Not only do Meg and her mother fit this particular bill, but Meg is also the one who wages the battle between good and evil.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about individuality, conformity, and personal growth. What does A Wrinkle in Time suggest about these ideas?

How is the Murry family different from most people in their community? At the beginning of the book, do you find them strange, and does your opinion change over the course of the story?

How does Meg change over the course of her adventure? What character strengths does she demonstrate?

Book Details

Author : Madeleine L'Engle
Genre : Science Fiction
Topics : Adventures , Brothers and Sisters , Great Boy Role Models , Great Girl Role Models , Science and Nature , Space and Aliens
Book type : Fiction
Publisher : Yearling Books
Publication date : January 1, 1962
Publisher's recommended age(s) : 9 - 12
Number of pages : 240
Award : Newbery Medal and Honors
Last updated : June 19, 2019

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Book News & Features

The unlikely best-seller: 'a wrinkle in time' turns 50.

A Wrinkle In Time

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Imagine, for a moment, that you're a publisher hearing a pitch about a children's book whose tangled plot braids together quantum physics, fractions and megaparsecs (a measure for distances in intergalactic space). The book also casually tosses out phrases in French, Italian, German and ancient Greek. Sound like the next kids' best-seller to you?

It didn't to the many publishers who rejected Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time , which turns 50 this year. The novel was an immediate hit with young readers and with critics when it was published, and it won the Newbery Medal in 1963. Since then, it has remained a beloved favorite of children and adults alike.

But it almost didn't see the light of day. At the time, L'Engle already had six books to her name, but publishers were perplexed by her latest.

L'Engle's granddaughter, Charlotte Jones Voiklis, describes the publishers' befuddlement to All Things Considered host Melissa Block: "Was it for adults, was it for children? What is this, science fiction? Oh, I know what science fiction is, but there aren't female protagonists in science fiction. Are you sure you want to talk about good and evil — isn't that a little bit philosophical? Can't you just cut that part out?"

Despite considerable misgivings, Farrar, Straus and Giroux bought the book. They sent it to an outside reader, who called it "the worst book I have ever read." The book's editor admitted it was "distinctly odd" but conceded: "I for one believe that the capabilities of young readers are greatly underestimated."

His faith in young readers paid off. There are currently 10 million copies of the book in print.

Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) was best known for her young adult fiction. Her works reflect both her Christian faith and her strong interest in modern science. Sigrid Estrada hide caption

Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) was best known for her young adult fiction. Her works reflect both her Christian faith and her strong interest in modern science.

What is it, 50 years on, that continues to appeal to children and makes adult fans positively vibrate when they talk about the book? Maybe its appeal lies in its unusual heroine, Meg Murry, who is insecure, outspoken, "outrageously plain" — and irresistible.

Voiklis says her grandmother put a lot of herself into Meg. "She really was Meg. In the same impetuous, passionate, stubborn, loving way that Meg is, she was."

Or maybe readers thrill to the creepiness of the planet Camazotz, where Meg has to go to rescue her father. With its shades of totalitarianism — Camazotz is ruled by IT, a disembodied, quivering brain that insists on conformity — the dismal planet recalls the Cold War era in which the book was written.

The success of A Wrinkle in Time hasn't immunized it from criticism, however. Critics have attacked its theological themes, some calling it blasphemous, others complaining it's too religious for a children's book.

"I still don't understand it, and maybe that's because it always confused Grandmother — that it would be vilified both by the Christians and by secular folks who thought that there was too much overt Christianity," Voiklis says.

Madeleine L'Engle reads with her granddaughters, Charlotte and Lena, in 1976. Crosswicks Ltd./McIntosh hide caption

Madeleine L'Engle reads with her granddaughters, Charlotte and Lena, in 1976.

The publishers who rejected the book insisted that children would be put off by the book's complicated, elliptical plot and concepts, but for author Rebecca Stead, the ambiguous aspects are what make the story so compelling.

In Stead's own children's book, When You Reach Me , the main character has read A Wrinkle in Time about a hundred times and won't read anything else. Stead says she could never really wrap her mind around all the time travel stuff in L'Engle's book, but to her, it didn't matter.

" A Wrinkle in Time also asks these huge questions, really, about the universe, and good and evil, and the power of love, and all of this crazy science and complex ideas. It assumes that kids are able to think about all that stuff. I think that a lot of people forget that, or never realize it, but a children's book is really the best place to ask big questions. Our worlds get smaller as we get older," Stead says.

Rebecca Stead's autographed copy of A Wrinkle in Time. The inscription reads: "for Rebecca — tesser well — Madeleine L'Engle." Rebecca Stead hide caption

Voiklis agrees that the publishers erred in assuming children weren't interested in stories that were so complex — semantically, morally and narratively.

"Even if a young reader doesn't know all of the words, or know who all of the quotations are from, or if they can't grasp exactly what a tesseract is ... it sort of gives room for the reader and shows possibility and a place where you want to go and understand," Voiklis says. "[L'Engle] didn't think condescending to children was the right thing to do."

And 50 years after it was published, L'Engle's unapologetically erudite novel continues to challenge and captivate — and Calvin O'Keefe, Meg Murry and her younger brother Charles Wallace take another generation on their unforgettable cosmic journey.

C.A. Hughes Book Reviews

The literary journeys of a 20-something, bilingual, elementary school teacher.

Book Review: “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle

Book Details:

Year of Publication: 1962

Genre: Fantasy (Middle Grade)

Format (How I Read It): Paperback

Goodreads Synopsis:

It was a dark and stormy night.

Out of this wild night, a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O’Keefe on a most dangerous and extraordinary adventure—one that will threaten their lives and our universe.

Winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal, A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L’Engle’s classic Time Quintet.

Book Review

“Beware of pride and arrogance, Charles, for they may betray you.”

Themes: Fight the darkness within and around you. The ability to communicate is a gift. Embrace your faults. Know what you don’t know. Love conquers all. Be yourself.

Character Development: I struggled with the characters and their development in this book. In general, I found the main character, Meg, really annoying and off-putting. She just seemed to absolutely hate herself. She was constantly commenting on how ugly and stupid she was, and I just found it to be so over the top. I think it’s fine to have characters who lack confidence and develop it throughout the journey (which she did), but this was too overexaggerated for me. Also, there was a little romance between Meg and her friend Calvin that just happened really abruptly and seemed really out of place (especially for a middle grade novel). I think it would have been better to see her develop a strong friendship rather than a romantic relationship.

Plot/Pacing: I found the first 1/3 or so (maybe even the first 1/2) to be pretty interesting. It was a unique concept and some of the minor characters that were introduced were quirky and fun, but it kind of slowed down after that. It felt repetitive at times, the main character whined a lot, and the ending was really anti-climactic.

Writing Style: I thought the writing was fairly whimsical, but overall not anything too memorable or outstanding.

“Bingeability”: Moderate. It’s not very long, and you will want to know what happens, which will keep you reading.

Emotional Investment: Low. The characters got on my nerves too much for me to be too emotionally invested.

Windows and Mirrors: Low self-esteem.

“I don’t understand it any more than you do, but one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have to understand things for them to be.”

Overall Thoughts: This may be an unpopular opinion, but I wasn’t a big fan of this one. The ending was resolved too quickly and was anti-climactic. There were some religious undertones that seemed kind of out of place, although it was interesting to see the juxtaposition of religious ideas with scientific ones. I also thought that some of the themes and symbols were a little bit muddled. For example, they were trying to fight the darkness before it took over, but they were also on a planet that was being controlled by a giant brain called “IT” (who took away everyone’s free will), whom she defeated with the power of love. Also, the darkness was supposed to represent all evil (and basically any and all negative things that humans experience), so when they defeated the darkness… Was everything on Earth just idyllic? I know this is a series, so maybe this is explored in subsequent books, but I just never fully understood exactly what they were trying to accomplish (other than rescuing her dad). I like the idea of fighting darkness and evil with love, but I just thought the execution was confusing. Finally, considering this was written in the ’60s, a lot of the language is really outdated, which could be confusing for kids today (especially kids who are emergent bilinguals and are learning English as a second language).

I will say, though, that the book was SO much better than the recent movie adaptation. Yikes.

Recommendation: I would keep this in my classroom as an option for independent reading, but that’s it as far as classroom use goes. For adults to use with children at home, it’s up to you! There’s nothing wrong with this book, it just really wasn’t for me. If it holds a special place in your heart and you want to share it with your kids, go for it! I think this could be a great family read-aloud if you think it would be the right fit for your family.

Thank you for reading my review! Leave a comment letting me know if you’ve read this one or have any questions about it, and keep an eye out for my next review!

A Wrinkle in Time

By madeleine l'engle.

Madeleine L'Engle’s ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ is an important work for the genre of young adult fiction and the broader children’s literature genre. It is packed with helpful themes that are core to every teen’s development and has inspired generations of children since its 1962 publication.

About the Book

Article written by Victor Onuorah

Degree in Journalism from University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Despite a third of the book dripping with fantasies and a make-believe storyline that includes ‘ tessering ’ across planets, there always seems to be a vital lesson left hidden by author Madeleine L’Engle on every page of ‘ A Wrinkle in Time .’ This article takes us through an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of such a fine piece of literature.

The Strength

‘ A Wrinkle in Time ’ is beautifully written and has quite the storyline of a classic sci-fi novel. Its themes, fictional planets, and characters are unique and not nearly as generic as most books of this genre are. After reviewing the book, I’ve come up with a few headings for how I think L’Engle gave strength to the book.

The complete sci-fi package

L’Engle’s ‘ A Wrinkle in Time ’ is not only one of the earliest sci-fi books for young adults but also one of the best from such a genre. From space tech to space travel, from extraterrestrial life forms to aliens and beasts on another planet, among other things. The book includes all the core components that readers of sci-fi books love to see.

L’Engle warms the reader up for an engaging sci-fi angle with Meg’s father and brilliant scientist, Mr Murry, who is understood to have been researching the fifth dimension as he tries to uncover the secrets to interplanetary travels. Things, however, quickly go south in the lab, and he finds himself trapped on another planet, Camazotz, lost forever, or so it seems.

After about two years of his missing, a team of earthly juveniles and three sage women are led by his daughter Meg as she commands warfare into the territory of the aliens to save him, who is now being incarcerated by the leader of Camazotz’s evil forces, IT.

The ensuing battle between the human race and a very sophisticated alien civilization led by IT isn’t going to be an easy one – especially with the alien power having the ability to control and manipulate human psychology. But L’Engle without a doubt, presents this story in the most exciting and engaging manner ever possible, and of course worthy of a proper sci-fi narrative.

An Adventure of Bravery, Fear, and Emotion Powered by Love

L’Engle’s ‘A Wrinkle in Time ’ clearly is a book for young people and is rightly stated by the author. However, it is interesting to see the number of brave showings on the part of the child characters, especially Meg, and frankly, we shouldn’t be seeing this level of intrepidness from this age grade.

When the trio Meg Charles Wallace and Calvin O’keefe sign up for the adventure to rescue Mr. Mury on planet Camazotz, they are warned they are going to face unimaginable fear and emotional turmoil going into the evil planet, and that is exactly what they face.

At a glance, the majority of readers, and I thought so too, might find this adventure impossible, particularly for characters of such age, but the author appears to have made this trip a realistic one by empowering Meg, the book’s protagonist, with the power of love – and it all makes sense how this powerful instrument drives their courage and morale.

To have an understanding of just how much love plays an important role in nurturing bravery in the face of a terrifying quest for the characters, one goes as far back as the opening plot of the book, where the author lets her readers know the tremendous loving culture that exists within the Murry family.

Despite the disappearance of her husband, Mrs. Murry never jokes about loving, caring, and always turning up for her children – even having to put in extra effort just so they miss or get affected too much by their father’s absence. Among the Murrys siblings, Sandy and Dennys Murry, the twin boys and Meg’s juniors, would go the length to even fight and beat up other kids who try to disrespect or maul their big sister Meg.

This deep level of love is exchanged between each member of the Murry family, and perhaps what we see with Meg proves to be the biggest of them all. For love’s sake, she embarks on a life-threatening journey to save her father. And for the same reason, she risk’s everything to rescue her brother Charles Wallace in the final part of the book.

The Science Behind a Wrinkle

Another aspect of ‘A Wrinkle in Time ’ I thought was appealing was the fact that L’Engle added a science side to it. The author noted that at the time of her writing the novel – around the early 60s, the scientist Albert Einstein was making waves with his book on relativity theory, a book which the author found interest in and read.

Einstein’s space and time ideas came just in time for the author – inspiring several chapters in her work ‘ A Wrinkle in Time’ – particularly chapter 5, which is titled; ‘ The Tesseract .’ although one can argue that the fourth and fifth dimensions are more theoretical than they are practical, some of the ideas left in this chapter are very high end and have mathematical logics in themselves.

This is one of the reasons why this book has a greater appeal and stands out from all the other works of the same genre because the author has been able to prove to her audience that her work goes beyond being just a mere fantasy, but a realistic foreshadowing of what could eventually be in the nearest future.

The Weakness

Just as it is for me, it may be hard for other readers to spot weaknesses in L’Engle’s ‘ A Wrinkle in Time ’ because of how much of a good read the book is. But even acclaimed authors know that their best work is never complete or perfect. So in this light, I’ve singled out below a few aspects of the book which I think make up the book’s weakness.

Long-winded Dialogues

This is one of the very few faults that the reader can easily notice while reading L’Engle’s ‘ A Wrinkle in Time .’ one can understand the author’s need to try and bring to life the ideas of her characters , but that comes at the expense of having unnecessarily verbose dialogues that work in complete deterrence to the speed of rising action at important points of the book.

Less than needed description for major characters

L’Engle does an impressive job of describing her lead character Meg Murry – along with a few others; for these lot, the descriptions are so good that reading the words feels like one is seeing their pictures. While this can be said of Meg, it can’t exactly be said of other characters – some of which are the three-star sisters whose descriptions still leave the reader not fully picturing the full reality of their likeness.

A Wrinkle in Time: A Heroic Tale about Children who Save the World from Imminent Doom

Book Title: A Wrinkle in Time

Book Description: 'A Wrinkle in Time' by Madeleine L'Engle is a celebrated children's novel blending adventure, science, and morality, captivating readers across generations.

Book Author: Madeleine L'Engle

Book Edition: First Edition

Book Format: Hardcover

Publisher - Organization: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Date published: January 14, 1962

ISBN: 978-0-374-38171-6

Number Of Pages: 256

Characterization

A Wrinkle in Time Review

Known as one of the greatest works in the children’s fiction category, Madeleine L’Engle’s award-winning novel, ‘A Wrinkle in Time,’ continues to inspire generations of young people with a fiery tale of space, spirituality, and science. The book is very engaging for all ages and is packed with important moral lessons for especially children and younger persons.

Logically scientific plot
Engaging storyline
Strong characters
long dialogues
Shallow characters’ descriptions
Too many unknown settings

About Victor Onuorah

Victor is as much a prolific writer as he is an avid reader. With a degree in Journalism, he goes around scouring literary storehouses and archives; picking up, dusting the dirt off, and leaving clean even the most crooked pieces of literature all with the skill of analysis.

Cite This Page

Onuorah, Victor " A Wrinkle in Time Review ⭐️ " Book Analysis , https://bookanalysis.com/madeleine-lengle/a-wrinkle-in-time/review/ . Accessed 16 April 2024.

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A WRINKLE IN TIME

The graphic novel.

by Madeleine L'Engle & adapted by Hope Larson & illustrated by Hope Larson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 2, 2012

Larson’s admiration and respect for the original text shines through; this is an adaptation done right.

A faithfully adapted graphic novel of the beloved 1962 classic, just in time to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

With a keen eye, Eisner Award winner Larson ( Mercury , 2010) doesn't stray a moment from L'Engle’s original text, following the Murry children, Charles Wallace and Meg, and their friend, Calvin O’Keefe, as they tesser through outer space looking for Meg and Charles Wallace's lost father. Larson's illustrations are clear and concise, neatly ordered across each page with a tidy sensibility. While it is an amazingly envisioned and sophisticatedly stylized offering, some purists may be slightly put off by the three-color black, white and blue palette. It's difficult to see The Man with Red Eyes with baby blue eyes, or to miss out on her rainbow wings when Mrs. Whatsit morphs into the centaurlike creature on Uriel. Minor grievances aside, this is a stunning reimagining of L'Engle’s Newbery-winning tale, and it should entrance old and new readers alike. Adaptations can be difficult to execute with style and grace; Larson manages to do both and still add her own flair.

Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-374-38615-3

Page Count: 392

Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS

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More by Madeleine L'Engle

BOOK REVIEW

by Madeleine L'Engle

by Madeleine L'Engle & illustrated by Christine Davenier

More About This Book

NY Public Library Releases Kids’ Book List

SEEN & HEARD

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

From the school for good and evil series , vol. 1.

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.

Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.

Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).

Pub Date: May 14, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

STEALING HOME

by J. Torres ; illustrated by David Namisato ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 5, 2021

An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.

Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.

Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.

Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0

Page Count: 112

Publisher: Kids Can

Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION | GENERAL GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMICS

More by J. Torres

by J. Torres ; illustrated by Sean Dove

by J. Torres ; illustrated by Aurélie Grand

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Rereading “A Wrinkle in Time,” After a Childhood Enthralled by Madeleine L’Engle

By Katy Waldman

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As a kid, you are tossed incessantly against your own limitations. So much about the world is unfathomable; your job is to dispel some of the dimness, with help from adults and firsthand experience. Your brain is a miner’s lamp, swivelling toward the knowledge shimmering in the dark rock. If the process goes well, you might start to believe that all mysteries are solvable.

This is education at its most romantic: a dawning apprehension of half-hidden forms. A book that is “educational” in this sense might combine appreciation for the powers of the mind with an air of secrecy and occlusion, as in the work of the young-adult author Madeleine L’Engle, whose novel “ A Wrinkle in Time ,” from 1962, has finally been adapted into a movie : a live-action, sherbet-hued fantasia from Ava DuVernay , the director of “Selma” and “13th,” starring Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, and Oprah Winfrey as the three cosmic godmothers and the newcomer Storm Reid as the child protagonist, Meg Murry.

L’Engle has a gift for baiting intellectual hooks, for making life feel irresistibly mysterious. What I remember most about her “Wrinkle in Time” quintet, which I read as a grade schooler in the early aughts, is the fiercely pleasant torture of forcing my imagination to bend in bizarre ways. To read L’Engle is to enroll your brain in a yoga class four levels too advanced. “A Wrinkle in Time,” the quintet’s first entry, tells the story of Meg, who voyages across galaxies with her friend and brother in search of her lost father. She encounters celestial beings disguised as witchy old ladies; flowers that exhale oxygen; furry, tentacled beasts that perceive the world through an incommunicable sixth sense. Meg’s brother, Charles Wallace, is cryptically “gifted”—he somehow seems to maintain a direct line to the essences of things. He knows what Meg is thinking, especially when he wears his “intently listening look.” Charles Wallace is one of many characters in the novel who repeatedly say lines like “I can’t quite explain” and “It won’t go into words.”

Twenty years ago, those sentences caused me almost physical pain. The curiosity that they inflamed, the sense of transcendence just out of reach, was extraordinary, and I hadn’t yet learned to accept the finality of certain limitations. L’Engle’s adult human protagonists are mostly scientists. Her books exalt math, reason, and problem-solving. But the villain in “A Wrinkle in Time” is cold cerebrality taken to the extreme: a large brain that enforces conformity from “the CENTRAL Central Intelligence Building.” L’Engle, a lifelong Episcopalian whose gentle spirituality suffused her writing, was the brilliant teacher who kept insisting on how little she knew, a logician in awe of the numinous.

At one point in “A Wrinkle in Time,” Mrs. Whatsit, the youngest of the children’s heavenly guardians, metamorphoses into “something like a horse but at the same time completely unlike a horse.” L’Engle continues: “From the magnificently modeled back sprang a nobly formed torso, arms, and a head resembling a man’s, but a man with a perfection of dignity and virtue, an exaltation of joy such as Meg had never before seen. . . . From the shoulders slowly a pair of wings unfolded, wings made of rainbows, of light upon water, of poetry.” This is anti-description, a breathless unravelling. The language of approximation (like a horse, resembling a man) melts into language about the inadequacy of language (but also unlike a horse, a man but better) and then to abstraction: What could wings made of poetry possibly look like? Before a reader can even try to process such a vision, Mrs. Whatsit is aloft, showing her charges the “garden more beautiful than a dream,” where creatures like her are singing, “making music that came not only from their throats but from the movement of their great wings as well.” Of course, Meg cannot understand the words. But Charles Wallace, displaying his alert and riddling expression, says that he can pick up “a little. Just a very little.”

I went back and reread “A Wrinkle in Time” a few days ago. I expected to feel that familiar, frustrating ache. But I must have lost my youthful intimation that some ancient psalm was on the tip of my tongue. As a thirty-year-old, I’ve reconciled myself to collecting meaning in glints and shards. “Shades of the prison-house begin to close / upon the growing Boy,” Wordsworth wrote. He meant that adult humans don’t get serenaded by winged equines or speak alien languages.

So, on my second go-round with the Murry kids, I didn’t spend forty-five minutes tangling with the sentence about the beasts that “saw, knew, understood, far more completely” than any of the human characters, or wondering what such knowledge would entail. Instead, I fell in love again with Meg. I adored Meg as a girl, too, but I didn’t think about her much. She was me, and she felt the way I felt. When Charles Wallace retreated into his mystic glooms, she yearned to follow, but couldn’t. (“I don’t understand,” she repeats, in tones of alternating wonder, supplication, and fury.) This time, other facets of the protagonist stood out. She is isolated and sad; she misses her dad terribly. She turns her pain in on herself. “It’s not just the weather,” Meg reflects. “It’s the weather on top of everything else. On top of me. On top of Meg Murry doing everything wrong.” She has frizzy brown hair, thick glasses, and braces. A neighbor calls her “that unattractive girl.” Her teachers find her “belligerent” and “antagonistic,” and the only people who seem to show her any kindness are her flame-haired scientist-babe mother (tough break) and her little brother.

But Meg is kind, smart, and curious. She adds extra sweet pickles to a tuna sandwich she is making for an unannounced guest, even though no one asks her to (and she doesn’t trust the guest). She can calculate square roots in her head. She is ferociously loyal and protective. And when the evil brain is weaving a verbal shroud of banalities to entrap her, she interrupts it with a revelation that is more than intellectual nitpicking, that shudders with moral force. Meg has just recited a line from the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” The brain has retorted: “But that’s exactly what we have on Camazotz. Complete equality. Everybody exactly alike.” “No!” Meg answers, cutting through the pablum of a master sophist. “Like and equal are not the same thing at all!”

“A Wrinkle in Time,” the movie, seems similarly taken with Meg, in that its primary concern is getting its protagonist to understand that she is, in the vaguest possible way, beautiful and extraordinary. Helmed by a brilliant black woman and spotlighting a talented young black actress, the new “Wrinkle” is a triumph in terms of representation but not storytelling; its messaging is too pat to reflect the book’s exploratory spirit. The adaptation flattens L’Engle’s characters and themes into the most simplistic, feel-good version of themselves. Movie-Meg defeats the darkness when she learns to embrace the person she is; she discovers not some ineffable quality of light or interconnectedness out in the universe but, rather, the self-help mantra that she deserves love. A message of affirmation directed specifically toward black girls is thrilling, but movie-Meg hardly has any features beyond her wounds and self-doubt, whereas everywhere on the page were indications of a full, complicated consciousness: drama-queen narration, a willingness to wrestle philosophically with new ideas, a sweetness to balance out the stubbornness and sullenness. Meanwhile, the rest of the film’s mechanics are so rote and obvious, its coincidences so contrived, that the original “Wrinkle”—all capaciousness and wonder—feels very far away.

But the movie is also big-hearted. Its well-meaning imperfections somehow leave me in the same poignant place that my second reading of the book did: moved by L’Engle’s human sympathies rather than enthralled by her divine presences. The sublime is not like our enduring values and relationships—it doesn’t linger. After Meg returns home, the whole Murry family is overcome, “talking and laughing all at once . . . the joy and love were so tangible that Meg felt . . . she could touch it with her bare hands.” The guardians, though, are needed elsewhere, for reasons that are not revealed. “There was a gust of wind,” L’Engle writes, “and they were gone.”

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A wrinkle in time, by madeleine l'engle, recommendations from our site.

“In a sense, it’s science fiction. But it’s laced through with a deep thread of theology. The protagonist, Meg Murray, encounters angels and she encounters an absolute evil. In this book, a deity—in the sense of absolute good—does not show themselves, but their subordinates, the messengers, the ones who help to do the will of the supreme being, are all very present. The spiritual elements appear side by side with the physics aspects in a way that you don’t often see being done either in children’s literature or in speculative fiction.” Read more...

The Best Speculative Fiction About Gods and Godlike Beings

Karen Lord , Novelist

The ‘wrinkle in time’ alluded to in this book’s title is a tesseract, a fifth-dimensional folding of the fabric of space and time. It allows the heroes of Madeleine L’Engle’s novel, Meg Murry, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O’Keefe to travel between worlds to save the universe from The Black Thing, a powerful evil appearing as a vast dark cloud. Essentially the personification of evil, one would be forgiven for mistaking it for Stranger Thing ’s Mindflayer! And the dark planet of Camazotz? It could be a stand-in for ‘The Upside Down’, a place which has succumbed to the Black Thing and where Meg’s father is trapped in a catatonic state. A Wrinkle in Time is timeless YA science fantasy; it’s a book that will deeply resonate with those who like Stranger Things .

From our article Books like Stranger Things

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A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle – review

‘it must be a really really really extremely awesomely good book because it’s one of my favourites’

I am writing about A Wrinkle In Time. A Wrinkle In Time is written by Madeleine L’Engle and is exactly 226 pages long. I really like this story because it is adventure-filled and exciting. I would recommend it for exciting adventure-hungry children (kids who like exciting adventures.) It is a sci-fi (a science fiction) story.

Basically there is a girl (Meg), her little brother (Charles Wallace) and their friend (Calvin) who are trying to save Meg’s father, who is fighting ‘The Black Thing’ or IT. ‘The Black Thing’ is a shadow-like creature who covers planets (like the earth). With Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which to help them, Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin will save Meg’s father and get into trouble along the way.

My favourite chapter is when Charles Wallace goes into IT thinking he can get out whenever he wants, and takes Meg and Cal (a.k.a. Calvin) to see Meg’s father, and Meg sees her father. While she wears Mrs Who’s glasses, she gets to hug her father again for the first time in a few years.

I consider this story one of the best stories I’ve read and I’ve read a lot of stories so it must be a really really really extremely awesomely good book because it’s one of my favourites.

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‘A Wrinkle in Time’ and Its Sci-Fi Heroine

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By Pamela Paul

Jan. 27, 2012

Bookish girls tend to mark phases of their lives by periods of intense literary character identification. Schoolgirls of the ’70s had their Deenie and Sally J. Freedman and Margaret moments, muddling through adolescence in the guise of one Judy Blume heroine or another. And for almost a century and a half, girls have fluctuated between seasons of Amy and Meg and Jo March, imagining themselves alternately with blond corkscrew curls, eldest sister wisdom or writerly ambitions.

But for those who came of age anytime during the past half-century, the most startling transformation occurred upon reading Madeleine L’Engle’s Newbery Medal-winning classic, “A Wrinkle in Time,” which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. It was under L’Engle’s influence that we willed ourselves to be like Meg Murry, the awkward girl who suffered through flyaway hair, braces and glasses but who was also and to a much greater degree concerned with the extent of her own intelligence, the whereabouts of her missing scientist father, the looming threat of conformity and, ultimately, the fate of the universe.

Meg Murry, in short, was a departure from the typical “girls’ book” protagonist — as wonderful as many of those varied characters are. Meg was a heroine of science fiction.

In 1962, when “A Wrinkle in Time,” after 26 rejections, was acquired by John Farrar at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, science fiction by women and aimed at female readers was a rarity. The genre was thought to be down-market and not up to the standards of children’s literature — the stuff of pulp and comic books for errant schoolboys. Even today, girls and grown women are not generally fans. Half of 18- to 24-year-old men say that science fiction is their favorite type of book, compared with only one-fourth of young women, according to a 2010 study by the Codex Group, a consulting firm to the publishing industry. And while a sizable portion of men continue to read science fiction throughout their lives, women don’t. Thirty-two percent of adult male book buyers are science-fiction fans compared with only 12 percent of women. When Joanna Russ, one of the few successful female science-fiction writers, died last year, her obituary in The New York Times referred to her as a writer who helped “deliver science fiction into the hands of the most alien creatures the genre had yet seen — women.”

“A Wrinkle in Time,” the first in a trilogy that was later extended to include two more books, also defied the norm. Though a major crossover success with boys as well (with more than 10 million copies sold to date), the book has especially won over young girls. And it usually reaches them at a particularly pivotal moment of pre-adolescence when they are actively seeking to define themselves, their ambitions and place in the world.

“Part of what made it seem so liberating to so many girls is that it allowed those with an analytic mind and an interest in the pursuit of science to read about a subject that at the time was not perceived of as a suitable course of study for girls,” said Leonard Marcus, author of a biography of L’Engle, “Searching for Madeleine,” to be published this fall. “At the same time, at its core it’s about a girl’s love for her father, and that emotional level transcends the genre aspect of the book.”

“A Wrinkle in Time” follows three children as they cross the barriers of time and space via something called a tesseract. On a “dark and stormy night,” Mrs Whatsit (whose honorifics appeared, also mysteriously, without periods), a celestial being disguised as an old woman, visits Meg, her mother and her younger brother Charles Wallace. Soon Meg and Charles Wallace, a prodigy of some sort (today he might be labeled Aspergian), and Calvin O’Keefe, a high school boy, are tesseracting across the universe in search of Meg’s father. They encounter at various points Mrs Who and Mrs Which, who, along with Mrs Whatsit, are also enigmatic star creatures. But it is Meg, a girl who combines both the ordinary and the extraordinary, who overcomes the book’s villain — an evil disembodied brain called IT — with the power of a simple human emotion, love.

Perhaps it is this softer element that distinguishes “Wrinkle” from its rocketry and light-saber brethren. But that doesn’t make the book any less weighty or challenging. In her introduction to a 2007 edition, Anna Quindlen, an enthusiast since childhood, confessed, “The truth is, I’m not a fan of science fiction, and my math and physics gene has always been weak.”

L’Engle’s book shies away from neither topic. On meeting Meg, we learn she can perform square root functions in her head — a mark, not of wallflower status, but of moral distinction. Still, Meg harbors doubts about her own intellectual abilities, and her exacting expectations rub off on the reader. If anything, the book enchants readers who might not entirely grasp its concepts with the delight in not knowing; the realization that even the most know-it-all kids do not, in fact, have all the answers and that certain questions are worth asking.

“I loved Mrs Who’s cryptic quotations, and the math that went right over my head and the fact that Charles Wallace had powers I was always struggling to understand,” said Rebecca Stead, whose Newbery Medal-winning novel, “When You Reach Me,” was in great part a homage to “A Wrinkle in Time.”

L’Engle, who was born in 1918 and grew up a child of privilege in New York City, struggled academically at her private school, though she later graduated cum laude from Smith. She first got the idea for “A Wrinkle in Time” after reading Einstein’s writings on relativity. “I used a lot of those principles to make a universe that was creative and yet believable,” she said in an interview with her publisher before her death in 2007.

Of course, science fiction is not only about science; it is also often deeply informed by politics, and can be a vehicle for commentary on the complex effects of progress in all its permutations — medical, political, technological. Russ, for example, a graduate of Yale, wrote books infused with feminist messages and digressions on philosophy. “A Wrinkle in Time” can be read as a warning against communism. L’Engle, an active liberal Episcopalian who spent many of her later years as a writer in residence at the Church of St. John the Divine in New York, tended to write allegorical works in which, as in the books of C. S. Lewis, good inevitably triumphs over evil, a message as likely to appeal to girls as it is to boys.

What is it then that makes girls averse to science fiction? Could it be the pronounced boyness of the covers — the same signal that deters girls from switching to Superman after their Betty and Veronica days have passed? Science-fiction books, whether technologically elaborate, intergalactic stories by the likes of Arthur C. Clarke and Hal Clement or the so-called “soft” science fiction of Ray Bradbury and Philip K. Dick, often wear dark washes of black and navy blue with 3-D fonts and brutal images of fire and destruction.

Yet there isn’t anything inherently unfeminine about science fiction. Some might say the dystopic fantasy, apocalyptic tales and paranormal romance so popular with today’s teenage girls are actually couched “girl-friendly” variants of science fiction. Perhaps. But why should science fiction proper be any less welcoming to girls? It may be simplistic to suggest that reading science fiction will lead women to pursue careers in chemistry and quantum physics and information technology. But then, how many female authors say they were inspired to become writers because of Jo from “Little Women”?

Surely we don’t mean to imply that science fiction, or science, is really just for boys. It is, after all, Meg’s microbiologist mother, Katherine Murry, rather than her rescued father, who later in the series wins the Nobel Prize.

An essay on Jan. 29 about Madeleine L’Engle’s science-fiction fantasy “A Wrinkle in Time” misstated the name of one of the book’s characters, a celestial being disguised as an old woman. She is Mrs Whatsit, not Whatsis.The essay also misstated part of the title of a forthcoming biography of L’Engle by Leonard Marcus. It is “Listening for Madeleine,” not “Searching for Madeleine.”

How we handle corrections

Pamela Paul is the children’s books editor at the Book Review.

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Book Review

A wrinkle in time — “time quintet” series.

Madeleine L'Engle
Adventure , Fantasy , Science Fiction

Readability Age Range

Originally published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux; since then, it has been published elsewhere, such as at Square Fish, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press.
Newbery Medal, 1963

Year Published

This book has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine . It is the first book in the “Time Quartet” series.

Plot Summary

No one has heard from Meg Murray’s physicist father in more than a year — then Meg and her precocious brother, Charles Wallace, meet Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Which (the Mrs. Ws). The strange women tell the children that their father is in danger, and it’s up to them (the kids) to travel through space and time to find him. Along with their new friend, Calvin, Meg and Charles Wallace learn about tessering or traveling into a fifth dimension through a “wrinkle” in time. Their father discovered how to tesser, which led to his imprisonment on the planet Camazotz by an evil disembodied brain known as IT. As they attempt to rescue Mr. Murray, Charles Wallace falls prey to IT’s mind control. Meg, Calvin and Mr. Murray escape to the planet Ixchel where the Mrs. Ws and helpful, blind creatures (including Meg’s caregiver, Aunt Beast) teach Meg what she must do to rescue her brother and return home.

Christian Beliefs

Charles Wallace, the Mrs. Ws and Aunt Beast all acknowledge God and Christ, though they don’t all know Him by the same name because of language differences on their various planets. On one planet, creatures sing verses from Isaiah 42. Aunt Beast, after saying that good and light guide her people, quotes from 2 Corinthians 4. Mrs. Who quotes 1 Corinthians 1, and Mr. Murray notes that all things work together for good for those who love God. Mrs. Who speaks about the light shining in the darkness but the darkness not understanding it. Christ is mentioned in this discussion as One who brought light, but so are well-known authors, scientists and religious leaders (including Ghandi and Buddha). Charles Wallace has Calvin read him the book of Genesis as a bedtime story. The Dark Thing and IT both exemplify evil. The Dark Thing hangs over the earth and other planets like a smoky haze, and IT manipulates and controls everyone it can inhabit.

Other Belief Systems

The Mrs. Ws use magic to travel through space and change themselves into other forms. These ladies take the children to visit the Happy Medium, a turban-wearing woman who can look at other worlds through her crystal ball. The Happy Medium tells Calvin that kissing her will bring him good luck. Mrs. Whatsit tells Meg if she stays angry, she won’t have room for fear.

Authority Roles

Mrs. Murray is a scientist who writes faithfully to her husband and tries to find him, despite not hearing from him in more than a year. Meanwhile, she maintains a brave face in front of her four children. Mr. Murray, also a scientist working for the government, has been trapped by IT on Camazotz. He longs to protect his family but has been unable to get back to them and, ultimately, can’t be the one to save his young son from IT. Calvin’s mother beats her children and screams at them. The Mrs. Ws, Aunt Beast and others on the planet Ixchel care for Meg, Calvin and Mr. Murray. They are loving but firm, refusing to allow Meg in particular to behave in a hateful manner to others. IT cruelly manipulates everyone he can, attempting to convince them that life will be much easier if they leave the thinking to him.

Profanity & Violence

Sexual content.

Kisses are innocent. Each of the children gives the Happy Medium a goodbye kiss. Calvin kisses Meg before she tessers back to Camazotz to get her brother. Charles Wallace gives Mrs. Whatsit a kiss of appreciation when he learns she was once a star who gave her life to fight the darkness.

Discussion Topics

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

Additional Comments

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .

*Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family

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A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet) Paperback – May 1, 2007

Purchase options and add-ons.

This is Book 1 of the Time Quintet Series

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.

Book 1 of 5 A Wrinkle in Time
Print length 256 pages
Language English
Grade level 6 - Kindergarten
Lexile measure 740L
Dimensions 5.25 x 0.7 x 7.65 inches
Publisher Square Fish
Publication date May 1, 2007
ISBN-10 0312367546
ISBN-13 978-0312367541
See all details

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“Yoo's cover art is enchanting.” ― Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast (blog) “A coming of age fantasy story that sympathizes with typical teen girl awkwardness and insecurity, highlighting courage, resourcefulness and the importance of famiyl ties as key to overcoming them.” ― Carol Platt Liebau, author, in the New York Post “An exhilarating experience.” ― Kirkus Reviews “This imaginative book will be read for a long time into the future.” ― Children's Literature

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"Now, don't be frightened, loves," Mrs. Whatsit said. Her plump little body began to shimmer, to quiver, to shift. The wild colors of her clothes became muted, whitened. The pudding-bag shape stretched, lengthened, merged. And suddenly before the children was a creature more beautiful than any Meg had even imagined, and the beauty lay in far more than the outward description. Outwardly Mrs. Whatsit was surely no longer a Mrs. Whatsit. She was a marble-white body with powerful flanks, something like a horse but at the same time completely unlike a horse, for from the magnificently modeled back sprang a nobly formed torso, arms, and a head resembling a man's, but a man with a perfection of dignity and virtue, an exaltation of joy such as Meg had never before seen. No, she thought, it's not like a Greek centaur. Not in the least. From the shoulders slowly a pair of wings unfolded, wings made of rainbows, of light upon water, of poetry. Calvin fell to his knees. "No," Mrs. Whatsit said, though her voice was not Mrs. Whatsit's voice. "Not to me, Calvin. Never to me. Stand up." "Ccarrry themm," Mrs. Which commanded. With a gesture both delicate and strong Mrs. Whatsit knelt in front of the children, stretching her wings wide and holding them steady, but quivering. "Onto my back, now," the new voice said. The children took hesitant steps toward the beautiful creature. From the Paperback edition.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Square Fish; Reprint edition (May 1, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312367546
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312367541
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 8 - 11 years, from customers
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 740L
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 6 - Kindergarten
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.7 x 7.65 inches
#1 in Children's Time Travel Fiction
#36 in Children's Fantasy & Magic Books
#42 in Children's Classics

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About the author

Madeleine l'engle.

Madeleine was born on November 29th, 1918, and spent her formative years in New York City. Instead of her school work, she found that she would much rather be writing stories, poems and journals for herself, which was reflected in her grades (not the best). However, she was not discouraged.

At age 12, she moved to the French Alps with her parents and went to an English boarding school where, thankfully, her passion for writing continued to grow. She flourished during her high school years back in the United States at Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, vacationing with her mother in a rambling old beach cottage on a beautiful stretch of Florida Beach.

She went to Smith College and studied English with some wonderful teachers as she read the classics and continued her own creative writing. She graduated with honors and moved into a Greenwich Village apartment in New York. She worked in the theater, where Equity union pay and a flexible schedule afforded her the time to write! She published her first two novels during these years—A Small Rain and Ilsa—before meeting Hugh Franklin, her future husband, when she was an understudy in Anton Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard. They married during The Joyous Season.

She had a baby girl and kept on writing, eventually moving to Connecticut to raise the family away from the city in a small dairy farm village with more cows than people. They bought a dead general store, and brought it to life for 9 years. They moved back to the city with three children, and Hugh revitalized his professional acting career.

As the years passed and the children grew, Madeleine continued to write and Hugh to act, and they to enjoy each other and life. Madeleine began her association with the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where she was the librarian and maintained an office for more than thirty years. After Hugh’s death in 1986, it was her writing and lecturing that kept her going. She lived through the 20th century and into the 21st and wrote over 60 books. She enjoyed being with her friends, her children, her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren.

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Lara's Wanderings

Book Review: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

I knew nothing about this book before I read it except that it was a highly praised young adult fantasy book that was being made into a movie by Disney. I thought I had heard that the author was a Christian, but I wasn’t certain. When I opened the pages, I had nothing but those few facts in my mind. Honestly, this short book was a bit of a wild emotional ride!

A Wrinkle in Time is about three kids, Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace, who go meet three magical women, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which. These women help the kids travel through space to rescue Meg and Charles Wallace’s missing father.

First, this classic book, written in 1963, is still very good and very unique, considering that it had some science fiction elements. It aged well. The writing is beautiful and poetic. The characters are round and interesting. They develop and grow even though the plot is pretty straightforward – good vs. evil. No tricks in that.

My primary criticism is of the main character, Meg. From the very beginning, she is overwhelmingly whiney, and I honestly can’t stand that. This is a common trope for young adult fantasy that I hate. If one can endure the constant whining, one will discover that this is the main point of the whole book. She learns to take responsibility and so grows a great deal in the course of the book. Most writers with whiney characters have no insight into the cause of this trait they just think it’s age-appropriate behavior. This then causes the characters to be mature and whiney through most of the book until they save the world. A Wrinkle in Time has a similar formula but with more intention and insight.

Still, I enjoyed the plot, many of the characters, and the topics involved. The book packs a simple plot with many interesting settings, philosophical issues, and colorful characters. No one seems forced or flat. Each character is unique to the others. The alien races are creative as well as their planets. The villain is suitably frightening. I was never at a point when the story slowed down or became dull. I think most readers with really enjoy this novel.

Madeleine L’Engle is a Christian, so this book does have Christian elements and even quotes scripture twice. Even so, the Christian element is subtle and not preachy. A non-Christian should have no issue with the content of this story. The Christianity is just the worldview in the background, not the central message.

The book is clean and without sexual content, cursing, or violence. The only reason I would not recommend this for middle school or younger readers is because of the scientific and philosophical conversation. There are discussions on dimensional travel, folding time, Biblical philosophy, free will vs. conforming, and various astrological features (nebulas, galaxies, black holes, stars of various kinds, etc.). A precocious reader may both enjoy this book and identify with the main characters, but in general, I would recommend this book for high school and above.

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle | Book Review

Book Review of A Wrinkle in Time The Children’s Book Review

A Wrinkle in Time

Written by Madeleine L’Engle

Ages 10+ | 256 Pages

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux | ISBN-13: 9780374386139

What to Expect: Time Travel, Adventure, Mystery, Science Fiction

Winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal , A Wrinkle in Time is the first in a series of 5 mysterious and unusual books—it has been made into a movie, a play, and an opera!

Meg Murry’s father, a scientist that works for the government, has disappeared while working on the secretive tesseract issue—a tesseract is a space warp or a wrinkle in time. Many people do not believe that Meg’s father is missing; they think that troublesome 13-year-old Meg and her genius 5-year-old brother Charles are not particularly smart, and their father has left them and their mother.

With their new unlikely friend Calvin, a popular high-school junior, Meg and Charles set out to find their father. With the help of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, unearthly characters, the kids are transported into space through the tesseract and end up on a space adventure full of danger. As they travel through the cosmos, looming with an evil power threatening to take over their minds, they must find inner strength and work together to discover the truth about their father.

A Wrinkle in Time is filled with mystery, time travel, a little love, and good vs. evil—all excellent elements for an exhilarating excursion through the pages.

If you can fold the fabric of time and make your own wrinkle to transport yourself through space, be sure to take this book with you and enjoy it from a galaxy of your choice. And for full effect, begin reading it on “…a dark and stormy night.”

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About the author.

Madeleine L’Engle (1918-2007) was the Newbery Medal-winning author of more than 60 books, including the much-loved A Wrinkle in Time. Born in 1918, L’Engle grew up in New York City, Switzerland, South Carolina and Massachusetts. L’Engle graduated cum laude from Smith College, then returned to New York to work in the theater. L’Engle gave up the stage in favor of the typewriter.

In the years her three children were growing up, she wrote four more novels. Her science fantasy classic A Wrinkle in Time was awarded the 1963 Newbery Medal. Two companion novels, A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet (a Newbery Honor book), complete what has come to be known as The Time Trilogy, a series that continues to grow in popularity with a new generation of readers. L’Engle passed away in 2007 in Litchfield, Connecticut.

What to Read Next if You Love A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel , by Madeleine L’Engle and Hope Larson

A Wind in the Door , by Madeleine L’Engle

A Swiftly Tilting Planet , by Madeleine L’Engle

Many Waters , by Madeleine L’Engle

An Acceptable Time , by Madeleine L’Engle

Bianca Schulze reviewed A Wrinkle in Time . Discover more books like A Wrinkle in Time by reading our reviews and articles tagged with adventure , mystery , time travel , sci-fi , and fantasy .

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Bianca Schulze is the founder of The Children’s Book Review. She is a reader, reviewer, mother and children’s book lover. She also has a decade’s worth of experience working with children in the great outdoors. Combined with her love of books and experience as a children’s specialist bookseller, the goal is to share her passion for children’s literature to grow readers. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado.

Book Review: A Wrinkle in Time

I read A Wrinkle in Time (1962) by Madeleine L’Engle as a young kid — probably around 8 or 9. At that time it completely went over my head, but I remembered little details that motivated me to try it again someday. I’ve since grown to love the book.

A Wrinkle in Time was much easier to understand as a young adult (I-told-you-so points to my cheer coach). The book follows an insecure young girl Meg, her middle school crush, and her genius brother Charles. The three protagonists then have an adventure throughout the galaxy as they try to find Meg’s and Charles’ missing dad.

This book is a Newbery Award winner. However, the book has received some pushback for juxtaposing scientific concepts and religious imagery. I like that aspect of it, but I could see how others might not.

I give this book a five star rating, especially if you like the spaces where science, religion, and fantasy intersect. It is geared toward kids and pre-teens (ages 10-13), but it can still be enjoyable and thought-provoking for adults of any age. It would be a great family read-aloud book.

Unfortunately A Wrinkle in Time doesn’t make a very good movie. Twice, movie producers have attempted to tame this book, with not much success. In my opinion, books like this one — with their weird charm — are best left as just books.

More Books Like This

If you like A Wrinkle in Time , you might also like its sequels, including A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet .

And if you like weird charm, I would suggest The Neverending Story (1983) written by Michael Ende and translated by Ralph Manheim, a great fantasy book that is likewise difficult to tame in movie format.

– by Abbie Call

Read next: Magyk Book Review , or The Great Work of Your Life Book Review .

Abbie Call – Cannonville/Kirksville, Missouri

Abbie Call is a journalist and editor at The Byway . She graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in editing and publishing from Brigham Young University. Her favorite topics to write about include anything local, Utah’s megadrought, and mental health and meaning in life. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hanging out with family, quilting and hiking with the dog she’s getting soon — fingers crossed.

Find Abbie on Threads @abbieb.call .

‘A Wrinkle in Time’ at Wheelock invites families to another dimension

M ore than 60 years after Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time” was first published, the science-fiction adventure still resonates with readers of all ages.

“The story is so simple,” says Regine Vital, who is directing a stage adaptation of the novel at Wheelock Family Theatre, starting Saturday. “It’s about a teenager named Meg Murry, who just wants her dad back, her mom to be happy, and her little brother safe.”

Of course, the appeal of the novel lies in the courage and determination Meg must summon to go on an adventure to rescue her father and restore balance in the universe, not to mention the ways in which it makes science and math feel magical and powerful. The “wrinkle” of the title refers to a tesseract, a four-dimensional geometric shape that allows Meg, her brilliant younger brother, Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin to travel through space and time to a fifth dimension, where her father has been imprisoned. The story has been adapted several times, most recently in a 2018 film starring Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindy Kaling (as Meg’s celestial guides — Mrs. Which, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Who).

“I loved this book when I was a child,” says Vital. “It was the first book I wanted to return to, to read again and again.”

Five of the six members of the ensemble double, and sometimes triple in roles, except for Beza Mekonnen , the Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School senior who plays Meg.

“We spend time in rehearsal world building,” says Vital, “figuring out how these ‘planets’ and ‘stars’ rotate on their axes and what their gravitational pull is, so the audience will know how these characters fit together.”

L’Engle’s novel may follow a familiar “quest” story line, but the author also explores quantum physics, math concepts, and astronomy in a way that makes them exciting.

“She opens readers up to the magic of learning,” says Vital, who is also an educator. “The moment a concept clicks is as powerful as any magic spell.”

Some of the story’s appeal lies in the fact that Meg is an unlikely hero who must push her boundaries, while also relying on her brother and her friend.

“This trio can’t accomplish what they must without each other,” says Vital. “They have so much faith in each other, and so much love for each other.”

Meg’s growth as an individual throughout the novel allows her to serve as a wonderful role model, Vital says.

“Meg starts out really closed off,” she says, “but as she opens up her mind to possibility and her heart to others, she becomes this incredible ball of light and love.”

The story, she says, resonates even more in this post-pandemic world.

“It’s great for young people to see a young woman who is determined and brave, but also know that ‘brave’ can mean admitting you can’t do something alone, and the most important thing is to be yourself,” Vital says. “The world is hard and scary for young people today. We can’t always guarantee a safe space, but we want to create a brave space.”

Climate plays in Gloucester

Gloucester Stage Company is hosting “Water’s Rising: Festival of New Climate Action Plays” April 26-28 to coincide with Earth Day. The theater company received 240 submissions for the festival and selected three: “A Few Fun Facts About Greenland,” by Maximillian Gill; “Cincinnati by the Sea,” by Hannah Vaughn; and “If Nobody Does Remarkable Things,” by Emma Gibson. Tickets are $20 for each play or $50 for a festival pass. Go to gloucesterstage.com/waters-rising-festival .

Arlekin Players to present ‘The Dybbuk’

The century-old Yiddish theater classic, “The Dybbuk,” will be presented in a new adaptation by Arlekin Players Theatre and staged at the Vilna Shul May 30-June 23. The play, originally written in 1916 by S. Ansky, had its world premiere in Warsaw in 1920, and has now been rewritten by Roy Chen and adapted by Arlekin artistic director Igor Golyak with Dr. Rachel Merrill Moss. The story follows Leah, a young woman who is possessed by a malicious spirit (the dybbuk of the title) of the man she loved.

Staging the production in the Vilna Shul , a cultural center in a historic synagogue on Beacon Hill, was an important part of the vision for “The Dybbuk,” Golyak said in a statement.

“In this terrible time in our country and our world, nothing feels more needed than to gather our many communities … in this sacred space and share an epic and fantastical tale of love, yearning, and the restless spirits that lie between us, and between worlds.” Tickets can be purchased at arlekinplayers.com/the-dybbuk .

Teatro Chelsea expands leadership

Teatro Chelsea has named Elliot Norton Award-winning director Mariela López-Ponce (”Don’t Eat the Mangos”) as the company’s co-producing artistic director, joining Armando Rivera, who has led the program since its 2020 launch. Together, the pair will each produce and direct projects while pursuing Teatro’s mission of amplifying Latin voices, culture, and talent.

For her first project in her new capacity, López-Ponce will collaborate with playwright Alejandro Rodriguez on the world premiere of his work “Alba,” one of three plays selected for Teatro Chelsea’s A-Típico IV , an annual festival and cornerstone of the company’s work.

A WRINKLE IN TIME

Presented by Wheelock Family Theatre, 180 The Riverway. April 13-May 11. Tickets $24-$48, plus $5.50 fee. wheelockfamilytheatre.org

Terry Byrne can be reached at trbyrne818@ gmail.com.

Beza Mekonnen (left) as Meg Murry and Becca A. Lewis rehearse a scene from Wheelock Family Theatre's "A Wrinkle in Time."

A Wrinkle In Time Review

Disney has shown increasing boldness in the stories that it has been willing to tell over the last few years, and now it has set its sights on one of the most iconic and challenging books ever written: Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time . Bringing Selma director Ava DuVernay into the equation, the film has reimagined its narrative to feel thematically relevant for the modern era, but its bright and shiny new sheen ultimately isn't enough to save it from some severe storytelling issues.

A Wrinkle in Time tells a story almost identical to that of Madeleine L'Engle's original book, albeit with a few twists. Meg Murry ( Storm Reid ) is a nerdy, impetuous, and misunderstood southern California girl trying to find her way in life, while also watching out for her brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and her mother (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) four years after the mysterious disappearance of her father Alex Murry ( Chris Pine ) during a physics experiment. Unwilling to let her father go, Meg soon stumbles into a mysterious new adventure when Charles Wallace introduces her to Mrs. Who ( Mindy Kaling ), Mrs. Whatsit ( Reese Witherspoon ), and Mrs. Which ( Oprah Winfrey), three cosmic beings in search of warriors to help them find Meg's missing father. Together, along with their new friend Calvin (Levi Miller), they go on an interstellar mission to uncover the secrets of the universe, defeat a dark force threatening the cosmos, and reunite their broken family.

Once on the adventure itself, A Wrinkle in Time has a hard time staying in one place long enough to forge a connection with a setting or an environment. By its very nature, the story jumps around a lot, but it is hard not to shake the feeling that A Wrinkle in Time could use an extra 20 minutes on its runtime, so our characters can sit down and forge real bonds with one another. As it stands now, Calvin's arrival and willingness to join up with Meg and Charles Wallace comes out of nowhere, and the film's set pieces mostly boil down to Meg, her brother, and her new friend "tessering" (or teleporting) aimlessly through the cosmos. There are some great moments with characters like The Happy Medium (a surprisingly emotional Zack Galifianakis), but they are undercut by A Wrinkle in Time 's hurry to get to the next set piece.

Much of this stems from A Wrinkle in Time 's surprising fidelity to the book. While the look of almost everything has changed, the structure of the tale remains intact, and some pieces of dialogue are lifted wholesale. Purists will likely appreciate the faithfulness to the source material, but the structure of A Wrinkle in Time does not necessarily lend itself to the traditional three-act format of a movie. Lengthy scenes from the book (such as the cul-de-sac scene on Camazotz) are shoehorned in, but their relevance is never entirely explained in a way that enriches the overall movie.

Another element of the story that doesn't quite succeed in its transition to the screen is the establishment of conflict and stakes for A Wrinkle in Time 's story. The book deals in very abstract concepts of a dark evil surging through the universe and destroying love with its negativity, but the visual portrayal of that entity (referred to as "The It") doesn't quite land in the film adaptation. A good story is ultimately only as good as its villain, but A Wrinkle in Time suffers because The It mostly looks like Parallax from Martin Campbell 's Green Lantern , except it gets even less screen time to flesh out its limited personality, motivation, or intention.

One area in which A Wrinkle in Time definitely does succeed is the sheer amount of imagination and inventiveness that goes into some of its set pieces. Yes, some of the CGI work is really bad in several scenes, but there are also many sequences that take concepts from the original novel and expand upon them in some breathtaking ways. The scene in which Meg uses Mrs. Who's glasses to see at CENTRAL Central Intelligence stands out as one particularly awesome moment, and the reimagining of Red ( Michael Pena ) as a marionette-esque robot is another.

As for the cast, the quality of the performances has a tendency to vary. The Mrs. all have fun chewing the scenery with their respective quirks, but Oprah Winfrey is the only one who appeals to Meg on a genuinely emotional level. Among the kids, Storm Reid is the only young member of the ensemble who truly shines. Levi Miller is not given enough to do for him to leave a real impact on audiences, and Deric McCabe's Charles Wallace is one of the most gratingly annoying movie characters in recent memory. Like so many other elements from the book, the film seems to assume that audiences will pick up on the importance of these relationships, rather than take the time to show why they matter.

Out of everybody on the cast, Chris Pine is the clear standout of the bunch. He brings a level of charm, charisma, and fatherly love that warms the otherwise cold film, and the scenes that feature him tend to shine as A Wrinkle in Time 's best moments. It almost leaves us wondering if Ava DuVernay would've been better off telling a looser adaptation focusing on Alex Murry's four-year journey instead of Meg's.

Despite some sharp visuals and interesting ideas, the film ultimately tells a meandering story that fails to capture the magic of the source material. Fans of A Wrinkle in Time have waited decades for a truly great adaptation of the book, but it looks like they are going to have to keep waiting.

Originally from Connecticut, Conner grew up in San Diego and graduated from Chapman University in 2014. He now lives in Los Angeles working in and around the entertainment industry and can mostly be found binging horror movies and chugging coffee.

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A Wrinkle in Time Book Review
Meg i. The book has suspense and a few scary moments. The. Mild flirtation and a kiss. Parents need to know that A Wrinkle in Time is one of the great works of literature for kids. Besides being an exciting story, its messages of individuality, nonconformity, friendship and courage have inspired generations of readers.
A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet, #1)
Out of this wild night, a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on a most dangerous and extraordinary adventure—one that will threaten their lives and our universe. Winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal, A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L'Engle's ...
The Unlikely Best-Seller: 'A Wrinkle In Time' Turns 50 : NPR
It didn't to the many publishers who rejected Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, which turns 50 this year. The novel was an immediate hit with young readers and with critics when it was ...
Book Review: "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle
Winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal, A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L'Engle's classic Time Quintet. Book Review "Beware of pride and arrogance, Charles, for they may betray you." Themes: Fight the darkness within and around you. The ability to communicate is a gift. Embrace your faults. Know what you don't know.
A Wrinkle in Time: A Heroic Tale
Review A Wrinkle in Time By Madeleine L'Engle. Madeleine L'Engle's 'A Wrinkle in Time' is an important work for the genre of young adult fiction and the broader children's literature genre. It is packed with helpful themes that are core to every teen's development and has inspired generations of children since its 1962 publication.
A WRINKLE IN TIME
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy. (Fantasy. 14-18) Share your opinion of this book. An allegorical fantasy in which a group of young people are guided through the universe by Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which and Mrs. What — women who possess supernatural powers.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1962)
Best of all, with A Wrinkle in Time, L'Engle become one of the pioneers not only opened a path for more complex children's literature (think: Harry Potter). Once the book came out, it was widely praise, with the following review typical in its praise: … We will wrinkle again . From a review in The Courier News (Arkansas), March, 1971 by ...
A WRINKLE IN TIME
A faithfully adapted graphic novel of the beloved 1962 classic, just in time to celebrate its 50th anniversary. With a keen eye, Eisner Award winner Larson (Mercury, 2010) doesn't stray a moment from L'Engle's original text, following the Murry children, Charles Wallace and Meg, and their friend, Calvin O'Keefe, as they tesser through outer space looking for Meg and Charles Wallace's lost ...
Rereading "A Wrinkle in Time," After a Childhood Enthralled by
Her books exalt math, reason, and problem-solving. But the villain in "A Wrinkle in Time" is cold cerebrality taken to the extreme: a large brain that enforces conformity from "the CENTRAL ...
A Wrinkle in Time
Karen Lord, Novelist. The 'wrinkle in time' alluded to in this book's title is a tesseract, a fifth-dimensional folding of the fabric of space and time. It allows the heroes of Madeleine L'Engle's novel, Meg Murry, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe to travel between worlds to save the universe from The Black Thing, a powerful evil ...
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
A Wrinkle In Time is written by Madeleine L'Engle and is exactly 226 pages long. I really like this story because it is adventure-filled and exciting. I would recommend it for exciting adventure ...
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On this week's episode, the Book Review's thriller columnist and writer at large Sarah Lyall talks to the host Gilbert Cruz about Madeleine L'Engle's 1962 novel "A Wrinkle in Time," in ...
'A Wrinkle in Time' and Its Sci-Fi Heroine
An essay on Jan. 29 about Madeleine L'Engle's science-fiction fantasy "A Wrinkle in Time" misstated the name of one of the book's characters, a celestial being disguised as an old woman ...
A Wrinkle in Time
Along with their new friend, Calvin, Meg and Charles Wallace learn about tessering or traveling into a fifth dimension through a "wrinkle" in time. Their father discovered how to tesser, which led to his imprisonment on the planet Camazotz by an evil disembodied brain known as IT. As they attempt to rescue Mr. Murray, Charles Wallace falls ...
A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet)
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 ...
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A Wrinkle in Time tells the tale of Meg Murry, her family and a trio of celestial beings who travel through time and space in order to rescue Meg's scientist father, Charles, from evil forces on a distant planet. Although written in 1962, many themes remain relevant - teen insecurity, abandonment, the strength of love.
Book Review: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
A Wrinkle in Time has a similar formula but with more intention and insight. Still, I enjoyed the plot, many of the characters, and the topics involved. The book packs a simple plot with many interesting settings, philosophical issues, and colorful characters.
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle
3 min. Winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal, A Wrinkle in Time is the first in a series of 5 mysterious and unusual books—it has been made into a movie, a play, and an opera! Meg Murry's father, a scientist that works for the government, has disappeared while working on the secretive tesseract issue—a tesseract is a space warp or a wrinkle in ...
A Wrinkle in Time: Full Book Summary
A Wrinkle in Time is the story of Meg Murry, a high-school-aged girl who is transported on an adventure through time and space with her younger brother Charles Wallace and her friend Calvin O'Keefe to rescue her father, a gifted scientist, from the evil forces that hold him prisoner on another planet. At the beginning of the book, Meg is a homely, awkward, but loving girl, troubled by personal ...
A Wrinkle In Time (Book Review)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1962): A Book Review. Perspective is interesting. Your viewpoint here is widely held and from what I can tell, this book has been banned by a lot of Christian organizations over the decades for the issues with it you bring up (though LOTR seems to escape a lot of the same scorn from the Church despite some similar problems.)
A Wrinkle in Time Book Review and Ratings by Kids
ISBN-13: 9781250153272. ISBN-10: 1250153271. Published on 11/7/2017. Binding: Paperback. Number of pages: 256. A Wrinkle in Time has 219 reviews and 177 ratings. Reviewer anna_mae wrote: "A Wrinkle in Time is the story of Meg Murry, a high-school-aged girl who is transported on an adventure through time and space with her younger brother ...
A Wrinkle in Time Book Review
A Wrinkle in Time was much easier to understand as a young adult (I-told-you-so points to my cheer coach). The book follows an insecure young girl Meg, her middle school crush, and her genius brother Charles. The three protagonists then have an adventure throughout the galaxy as they try to find Meg's and Charles' missing dad.
'A Wrinkle in Time' at Wheelock invites families to another ...
A WRINKLE IN TIME. Presented by Wheelock Family Theatre, 180 The Riverway. April 13-May 11. Tickets $24-$48, plus $5.50 fee. Terry Byrne can be reached at [email protected]. "I loved this ...
A Wrinkle In Time Review
A Wrinkle in Time tells a story almost identical to that of Madeleine L'Engle's original book, albeit with a few twists. Meg Murry is a nerdy, impetuous, and misunderstood southern California girl ...

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A Wrinkle in Time

The Strength

The complete sci-fi package

An Adventure of Bravery, Fear, and Emotion Powered by Love

The Science Behind a Wrinkle

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Long-winded Dialogues

Less than needed description for major characters

A Wrinkle in Time: A Heroic Tale about Children who Save the World from Imminent Doom

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