If you want to
make the world a better place, there are many things you probably should do, and at least two that you must.
1) Read
A Wrinkle in Time at least once.
2) When they are old enough, and they are
ready, give this book to your
children.
I first read
A Wrinkle in Time when I was in
third grade. I loved it, but didn't read it again for a long time. Then a few years ago, I stumbled across a copy while browsing through a store which sold
old books. It's not a hard book to find, by any means, but
it seemed appropriate to find and remember it there, among those huge stacks of faded
books. That place had
eons of nostalgia stored away on crumbling yellowed pages, and I decided to take a bit home with me that day. I read the book again after I bought it, and for the third time the past couple of
nights. It made me think about a lot of things. It's an incredible book about
what it means to be human, to be
alive. In retrospect,
I have to wonder how much of who I am is tied to those books I read growing up.
"It's much too wild a night to travel in."
"
Wild nights are my glory," Mrs. Whatsit said. "I just got caugt in a downdraft and got blown off course." ... "I shall just sit down for a moment and pop on my boots and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, pet, by the way, there
is such a thing as a
tesseract."
Tesseract. Take this word, and
say it aloud. Feel how it forms on your tongue, seems almost to have
weight and substance, and then rolls off the tip into the air. There's a glimpse into the brilliance of this book. There are tons of words, real and imaginary that would have sufficed for ending that paragraph. Tesseract is the only one that is
perfect. But
I'm not going to tell you what it means.
So, plot synopsis. I never was too great at this part.
The book is about three children, Meg, Charles, and Calvin. The story centers around
Meg Murry,
an intelligent, awkward girl, who can't quite seem to find her place.
Charles Murry is her younger brother,
a genius that everyone thinks is a moron.
Calvin O'Keefe is a boy from school, a few grades ahead of Meg, who is quite intellegent, athletic, and comes from a home where
he doesn't fit at all. Together, these three children are led by
Mrs. Whatsit, and her friends,
Mrs. Who and
Mrs. Which, through the fabric of the universe in order to find and rescue the Murry children's father, who has been missing for several years. They learn a lot along the way, about what makes life
beautiful, and about a terrible shadow of sameness which threatens to swallow the entire universe in its
misery. It must be fought, at all costs. And it is.
Well, I guess that's enough to get you started. I don't want to spoil it if you haven't read the book, and anyway I have to get back to practicing my
tessering. Keep reading, people.