A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

I also read it as an early teen and loved it. It is one I have wanted to reread, see if I still like it, since it has been about 20 years. Honestly, I can't remember much about it.

I LOVE this book. Love, love, love, love! I read it in intermediate school, and then devoured the rest of L'Engle's books. I think she was probably the first author whose books I would pick up and read regardless of if I'd heard of them or not.

I don't remember much about it, but I remember absolutely LOVING this book as a kid. I read it a couple of times actually, I loved it so much. It was one of my favorites.

I would like to read it again, as an adult, just to see what my reaction would be now.

I don't like it.

But I prefer to read (and write) contemporary MG.

Many people (children and Cyias alike) love it. So, I have recommended it to others.

I remember it well, but have not read it in a long time. L'engle is one of my favorite authors. She is very blatant (IMO) about her religious themes, however, which I found present even in AWIT. I think in our present times this would probably be offensive to many people and not as widely acceptable as it was when I first read the book in the 80s.

In fact, I am almost positive I picked up the book at the Christian bookstore at the seminary campus my father was attending school at for his third masters degree. It was right next to CS Lewis.

I do think her writing is wonderful, and I am pretty openly accepting about lots of different subjects. I can see how it would not sit well with everyone. It's a bit subversive.

I loved Wrinkle in Time when I first read it at 9, but found some of it a bit precious.

Now, I can't bear it.

To be fair, some of that dislike is doubtless partially a knee-jerk reaction to other things she wrote that really upset me as a teen.

I read this around the same age as Medielvalist did and have been meaning to do so again. It was my first love as far reading on my own as a child.

Some of what she did was very simplified, I think, because of the age group it was targeted at. I have a similar reaction when reading YA and/or MG NOW. I just DO NOT like reading about young relationships and/or school experiences. It leaves me wanting more.

I agree with you about the religious aspect. I thought it was very overt and could have been more seamlessly layered in. She wrote some other books that were much better done. I particularly liked An Acceptable Time, which was focused on an older character and a very different setting. there were some semi-religious themes, but it was more subtle. Medie, you might like that one since it touched on some druidic and celtic practices. I would classify it as YA.

It's funny how we read things as kids, or even watch movies as kids, and don't see certain messages. I am floored by some of the awful things in the older Disney films. They are extremely racist.

I too, didn't like the suburbia thing. It tripped me up even as a kid.

However, I do find some authors preaching their personal views again and again to kind of melt into a background hum. Heinlen, for instance, I just get over. I fuhgedahboutit and read the books for whatever else there is.

L'Engle's religious views are prevalent in most of her books. I didn't like that she explored some of the stuff I thought was least interesting and ignored the things I found most interesting, like Charles Wallace and his intelligence and the odd family dynamics. She NEVER went into this in any of her books. She completely glosses over it, portraying them as this loving family, but never doing more. It struck me as very shallow. All the funky scientific stuff mixed with flimsy fantasy and religious themes fell a little flat when there wasn't as much solidity to the characters as I wanted.

I did find more in some of her other books. There was poignancy in a few relationships and she touched on some interesting things. I liked it, but I definitely would NOT feel the same now about her as I did at 15.

I love it, and most of the sequels. I loved it as a kid (still have my old falling-apart peanut-butter-and-jelly stained copy!) and i reread it as an adult. Still love it just as much. I even love the movie version! I wasn't bothered by any religious stuff in it. tbh i don't know what religion she is? I was also not bothered by lewis or pullman so meh. Anyone read the one where sandy and dennys go back to biblical times and fart around with noah? Good times.

Many Waters. I liked that one because the religious aspect was enveloped. I think it was a better book in general. I liked her books targeted at an older audience better than Wrinkle.

She is still a fave, but I think all authors have weak spots and I can see how she could tweak a nerve or seven. I don't know this book was her best (not IMO).

Cyia said:

I LOVE this book. Love, love, love, love! I read it in intermediate school, and then devoured the rest of L'Engle's books. I think she was probably the first author whose books I would pick up and read regardless of if I'd heard of them or not.

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I completely agree!!! Then I got hooked on allher Austin family books. L'engle was pretty instrumental in my loveof reading.

Honestly I was very disappointed with it. I thought the book was ok. But it boggles my mind at how it's become so popular and so highly lauded. The characters, the story, even the way she puts words together all struck me as "good" or "decent" but none of it blew me away. I gave it to my mom to read, thinking maybe she'd get more out of it, but she ended up with the same impression.

I remember enjoying the books, though any more I get all of them jumbled in my head. Was that the one with the talking mitochondria or the alien planet?

This is one of those book I'm afraid to revisit. I loved those first three novels in that series and L'Engle sparked off a reading frenzy in me that lasted, well, a lifetime.

I don't want to know if it wouldn't hold up.

Loved then, still love now. I'm still able to view it through the eyes of the age group intended, because I didn't re-read it until my oldest was old enough to read it. It's not my favorite book of hers (YA would be A Ring of Endless Light and for grown-ups, probably A Severed Wasp and I loved her memoirs, particularly Two-Part Invention).

Many Waters I blame for Anne Rice's dive into Bible fanfic. Just... ugh. I like to pretend that one isn't part of L'Engle's body of work.

I liked A Wrinkle in Time.

I liked An Acceptable Time better.

I too read it as a preteen and LOVED it, but apparently I wasn't quite as smart as the average bear (or kid), since I didn't figure out that it had a religious theme until I was much older.

A groundbreaking concept when first written. I'm not sure it's even fair for adults to read it today. It set the groundwork for a thousand other books we've all probably read, so it seems old hat to us now.

But I suspect kids will still love it.

I liked it when I read it in the fourth grade. Now I can't stand it. The only thing I absolutely hate about it is that they say a tesseract is a wrinkle in time. No. It's not.