Wrinkle in Time: (Newbery Medal Winner): 1 (Wrinkle in Time Quintet) Paperback – 1 May 2007

It says on the front cover ‘a masterpiece of science fiction’ and for a long time I wondered, as I felt the start was over-written, too flowery. Then I got well and truly drawn into the plot, and despite shades of 1984 and a few other alternate universe stories of the 1960s great SF writers, I concluded the cover was right. This is a masterpiece.We find Meg Murry at school or home with her mother and brothers. At first it is hard to tell that the youngest brother is not an adult. He is strange, but this strangeness is something treasured by his parents and beautifully explained – as are Meg’s own foibles – as something he’ll grow into. I remembered one young friend of mine who similarly spoke in the most complete and grammatically perfect sentences from a very young age, and accepted Charlie Wallace (Meg’s brother) from then on.Acceptance is one of the many themes in this book. Acceptance of who you are, and of people’s differences. As we follow Meg, Charlie Wallace and their friend Calvin to the planet of Camazotz in search of Meg’s father, we learn, as do they, that our differences are not only important to us, but also to our society, and even our world.The book splits fairly evenly into two parts: understanding Meg at home with her mother and brothers, and the strangeness and mysteries in their lives, and the quest to find her father, through the Wrinkle in Time. There is a fair amount of science – from psychology through to quantum physics – in bite-sized chunks in this book, which I enjoyed. It’s not essential to enjoying the plot, but I reckon a good many young readers will enjoy it too. The ending is a little cliched nowadays, but it wouldn’t have been when the story was written.One part I particularly enjoyed was the interaction with some planetary inhabitants who have not developed sight. Having recently debated with myself whether I could adequately include a deaf character in my books, I was fascinated not only by the story and descriptions of the people, but also the consequences for society, morals, and ways of doing things that would result from living without sight. I liked the way these beings concluded that sight was a limitation for Meg and her friends.A Wrinkle in Time has made me thoughtful; I’m still pondering some parts of the adventure. It is a compelling book, one that I recommend highly, and it is definitely a classic.

If I need to define A Wrinkle In Time in one sentence, it is a book for all times and for all ages. That’s why it’s a multiple award winner classic, and it was nothing less than my expectations.L’engle was inspired from Einstein’s theories in this book, and I’m not even sure I understand everything as an adult 🙂 It’s full of beautiful quotes, anecdotes, metaphors that elevates the book to another level than being a simple children’s novel. Meg, as a character, is layered and complex. When asked, L’engle if Meg is her, she says ‘of course’ 🙂The evil is so realistic and scary. The atmosphere is very vividly dark. I loved how she displayed the battle between good and bad. My only criticism is, I felt the end was very rushed compared to the build up.

A fast read but the plot in this main book was not interesting to me personally. Good enough for young Adults

Great book. Lovely story. Beautiful characters. Meg is wonderful, Calvin is a great hero and Charles Wallace is so adorable.

I bought this book knowing nothing about the story as it was recommended by a friend and was pleasantly surprised - I read it in one sitting over 3 hours or so and once I’d finished, I sat wishing I could read it again for the first time!While the story is relatively short and the writing style is simplistic at times, it isn’t at all dull to read - it’s relaxing and suitable for a wide audience (probably from around 11 upwards) and the characters (especially meg!) are relatable and appealing without being flawlessI would describe the story as rather whimsical fantasy (it reminded me of a ghibli film in places) but not in a way that could put off older readers.Overall, a brilliant story and definitely worth the price!

The reasons that inspired me to read this book were the Disney film of the same name which I've not yet seen but looking forward to trying out and there were a couple of references to it in Manifest a TV series I watched.I enjoyed this book and thought it was a good story and it helped me to fill in my free time. I'll look forward to checking out the movie now which I hope I'll also enjoy!

I will preface this review by saying that I have never read this book before. It seems like a lot of people around my age from North America read this when they were 11 years old or so? But I don't think it was very well-known in the UK, certainly I never read it at the target age. Which is a long-winded way of saying that I don't have any nostalgia on which to float this review.There were some really interesting concepts in the story. Travelling between worlds, the different races and planets the children encountered, the threat of losing your individual self to a greater power enforcing conformity to a terrifying level... But unfortunately so much of this was just rushed past in the urgency to get to the finale. I would have loved to learn more about these other worlds, about how travelling between them worked and the inherent risks involved, what the Dark Thing was, etc...My other bugbear, which is probably down in the most part to when the book was written, was the way the children behaved. Most of the time they were too mature for their ages and their behaviour very formal/stilted. Charles Wallace in particular we are told, with some vague hand-waving, is "different" and that's why he doesn't sound or behave at all like a 4 year old... and that's it? And Calvin has some unique ability to communicate, but again we're not told what or why.I think I would have enjoyed it more had I read it when I was the target age. Oh well!