Module 4: A Wrinkle In Time

Book Cover:

Book Summary: A wild quest through space and time for a team of rescuers tasked to save a lost scientist and battle the forces of evil.  When Meg, her brother, and a friend discover her lost father is really a universe away they team up with three spirit women to travel light years instantly to far away planets by bending time and space to create a wrinkle in time.

APA Reference:
L'Engle, M. (1962). A wrinkle in time. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Impressions: This is one of the most popular children's science fiction books in schools since it was written, and there is no wonder why.  This unique journey is more than just a simple science fiction story about aliens.  It is a quest of self discovery for the the team of children.  While action, adventure, space travel, and interesting characters abound, this story features the theme of good versus evil both explicitly and implicitly.  The children learn valuable life lessons from their team of mystic guides, and they are tasked to defeat total evil long enough to save Meg's father.  This book should expand the minds of children the way "The Matrix" movies do for adults.

Professional Review:
Pamela Paul commented "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."

Paul, P. (2012, January 27). ‘a wrinkle in time’ and its sci-fi heroine. Retrieved from                     http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/books/review/a-wrinkle-in-time-and-its-sci-fi-               heroine.html?

Library Use:  This is a great opportunity to have children describe other aspects of the fantasy lands visited in this book.  This can be done in either a purely creative way through illustrations, or in a scientific way to emphasize additional library research about the way other planets actually are.