"A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle

                I read "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'engle once before when I was in the 4th grade. When I had the opportunity to read it again, I eagerly took it because I remember not understanding the story very well. I had hoped that having almost 20 more years of experience in reading and knowledge would better prepare for me to understand the story and to understand the significance of its symbolism. It's also a very simple book to read: the pacing is very fast in most parts of the book and new characters are given very little description upon introduction.

               "A Wrinkle in Time" is the story of a strange interplanetary search undertaken by a girl named Meg Murray, her brother Charles Wallace (rarely is he referred to as simply Charles), and a boy with strange psychic powers named Calvin. The three are whisked across space and time by a trio of strange shapeshifting aliens called Mrs. Whatsis, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, who have the power to teleport to other worlds and dimensions. They eventually find Mr. Murray, who accidentally teleported during a mission for the government, to a planet called Camezotz, where a giant brain has enslaved the populace somehow.

               For a science fiction book, "A Wrinkle in Time" uses a lot of religious symbolism in strange ways. Particularly religious readers may want to keep this in mind, for this book has such oddities as winged centaurs who sing hymnals, blind tentacled aliens who thank God for their ability to resist evil, and - strangest of all - stories of Jesus fighting an alien evil alongside Leonardo DaVinci and Albert Einstein. I think the symbolism is very poorly used.

               Another problem I have with "A Wrinkle in Time" is that the pacing is very fast. The longest scenes in the book are, ironically, the least-important while important scenes such as confronting the villain of the book and the ending are covered in about five pages. The ending itself is about half a page and comes to an abrupt halt with almost no explanation as to how it occurred.

                I would not strongly recommend this book. It has some interesting scenes, but is not particularly thought-provoking and the characters are not very deeply characterized except for Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin.

"A Wrinkle in Time" is the first book in a five-book series referred to as the "Time Quintet." It has also been adapted into an opera in 1992, a Made-for-DVD movie in 2003, a play in 2010, and a graphic novel in October 2012 (barely two months before this review). 

This book has won the following awards:
1963 Newberry Medal
1964 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
1965 Sequoyah Children's Book Award

If you enjoyed "A Wrinkle in Time" check out the other books in the Time Quintet (in order of release date):
Book 2: "A Wind in the Door" (1973)
Book 4: "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" (1978)
Book 3: "Many Waters" (1986)
Book 5: An Acceptable Time (1989)

You might also be interested in the "A Wrinkle in Time" graphic novel.

Check out the "A Wrinkle in Time" movie trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdjShe0ouiw

L'Engle, Madeleine. A Wrinkle in Time. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1962. Print.