Saad, Matthew

Book Review #1

Period 4

October 31, 2016

A Wrinkle in Time

Madeleine L’ Engle

Fantasy

232 pages
John Newbery Medal

        

    The novel, A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’ Engle is about a teenage girl named Meg who has a younger brother named Charles Wallace, and younger twins. Meg’s father has disappeared. No one really knows what happened to him. Meg’s teacher keeps telling her that her father isn’t coming back, but Meg wont listen to her teacher because her mother, Mrs. Murry, still has faith that he will return one day. The book begins with an old lady with the name Mrs. Whatsit who comes into the Murry’s house. Mrs. Whatsit informs Mrs. Murry about a tesseract, which is like a wrinkle in time. Through this wrinkle in time, Meg may be able to find and bring back Mr. Murry. The next day, Meg and Charles Wallace walk to Mrs. Whatsit’s house to find more information about the tesseract. On the way they confront Calvin O’Keefe, a popular boy at Meg’s high school. Meg invited Calvin to her house for dinner, and gets to know him better. Calvin found out about Meg’s father and was interested in helping her in his return. Mrs. Whatsit and her two other friends, Mrs. Witch, and Mrs. Who, then fly Meg, Calvin, and Charles into Camazotz, the planet overtaken by the dark think, and told them to stick together in order to find Charles and Meg’s father.  When Meg, Charles, and Calvin arrive to Camazotz, they meet a man with red eyes who tried to hypnotize them into following IT. Charles Wallace then tries to fight the dark force but then eventually he got overtaken into the evil. Charles Wallace then takes them to see Mr. Murry who was been imprisoned from IT. Meg and Calvin then free Mr. Murry from a glass chamber and are lead to IT by Charles Wallace who was still under IT’s power. Seconds before IT tried to hypnotize Meg and Calvin, Mr. Murry saves them by tessering them onto another planet called Ixchel. All three Mrs. W’s appeared in Ixchel and told Meg to go back to Camazotz and rescue he brother. They told her to use the power of love to defeat the power of evil, which was upon Charles Wallace.  Meg then returns to Camazotz and then uses the power of love on her brother. When Charles becomes fully restored, they tesser through time and land in the garden back home and find Calvin and their father next to them. The family then rejoins together.

            Some of the good things I liked about the book were how Meg had to rescue Charles from IT using the power of love against the power of evil. This part of the story left me in suspense, because it made me become curious if Meg had the power to restore Charles from IT. I also enjoyed how the book carried the theme of love and courage throughout it. Some of the things I didn’t like about the book were how Mrs. Murry and the twins disappeared in the beginning and only showed up at the end of the story. I felt that they should have played a more important role in the book. I quite enjoyed the end of the book for the following reasons: Mr. Murry was saved, Charles was fully healed and restored, and the family was reunited. I enjoyed it because the book couldn’t have ended any safer and smoother than it had. I would strongly recommend this book to readers who like fantasy and adventure with plenty of suspense. The book makes you feel as if you are living the adventure to save Charles. The book also carries a variety of themes such as love, courage, and highlights that it is fine to accept the fact of being lonely and different from others.