It was a dark and stormy night.
When I read this aloud one chilly fall evening on the porch to my kids, I laughed out loud. It was Banned Books week and we were “celebrating” by reading Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, one of the perennial repeaters on banned books lists. #1 Son was in fourth grade, which is when I’d been introduced to A Wrinkle in Time. Darling Daughter was a little young, but she was accustomed to coloring while we read books that were supposedly “over her head” — books that she often quoted later.
I can’t imagine I laughed the first time I heard the opening line of this important book. But as an adult, it struck me as terribly clever — taking the most clichéd opening line ever and starting an astounding, break-all-the-rules book with it.
My fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Henderson read us A Wrinkle in Time. I remember the hair on my arms standing up as she read a chapter each afternoon after lunch and recess. I could hardly breath I loved that book so much. Meg was a Smart Girl, a Strong Girl — a smart and strong girl in ways not always recognized, but frequently squelched, in my experience. There were not nearly enough Smart/Strong Girl protagonists when I was in fourth grade. I adored her. I wanted to be her. Plus, I had a mad crush on Calvin.
The book was smart, too — filled with languages Mrs. Henderson could not pronounce, peppered with sayings from people I did not know (like Seneca), and there was math and science and space adventure! Oh my! (I wanted desperately to be a scientist when I was in fourth grade.) Reading time after lunch and recess was always my favorite part of the school day, but during those few weeks that we read A Wrinkle in Time, I was in the highest reading heaven.
When we reached the chapter called “The Tesseract,” Mrs. Henderson declared it “too difficult conceptually” and she skipped it. I can’t decide whether to never forgive her for this, or be terribly grateful. Because I went to the library and found the book so I could read the skipped part. I was determined to understand it, and I did. (The drawing of the ant on the line helped.) I understood it sitting on the floor in the library at age nine better than I did when I read it to my kids on the porch during Banned Books Week thirty years later, I think. Darling Daughter copied the picture of the ant in her artwork. #1 Son studied it after we’d finished reading.
I don’t remember reading ahead once I’d found the book in the library — I probably didn’t, since I enjoyed hearing the chapter installments each day. In fact, I don’t remember reading A Wrinkle in Time on my own at all — and there were plenty of books I read in a compulsive manner again and again.
But it was like I’d never left it when I read it to my kids. I remembered it all — the excitement…the terror of IT…the fast-paced dialog between all the smart smart people…the identical children bouncing balls in front of identical houses, which I think of every time I’m in a suburban development with only beige/grey houses and townhouses… Most of all: Meg’s frustration and fear, fierce strength and smarts.
The hair on my arms stood up again when I saw the preview to the movie of A Wrinkle in Time that’s coming out this March. It’s going to be wonderful, I can just tell. This groundbreaking, unusual novel that couldn’t be categorized when it was published and continues to resist categorization nearly sixty years later … this book that has been banned again and again and again … this book is about to take the world by a storm again, I predict, even as it’s never lost favor (except with those who would ban it, I guess). I open its pages and the hair on my arms stands up still — it remains incredibly relevant, I believe. Perhaps more so now than when it was published. I can’t wait to see it on the big screen.
It IS such a wonderful book, Melanie! And that is why I am not going to the movie. Call me a coward, but I’m afraid all the complexity that I created in my head would be washed out by seeing how the director imagined the book. That person’s vision will never be the same as mine. That’s also why I’m not going to see the movie WONDER. I’ve too often been disappointed when a beloved book of mine has been turned into a movie that couldn’t live up to what I had envisioned (TUCK EVERLASTING is one example, as is BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE). A rare example, for me,… Read more »
I’ll let you know how it is, David. I’m willing to risk it! I watched BECAUSE OF WINN DIXIE with fear and trepidation, but I actually love that one. I agree with you on Tuck and on Wonder, however.….