UPDATE: A Wrinkle in Time

To celebrate this book's 50th anniversary, check out the 50 years, 50 days, 50 blogs Celebration!

L’Engle, M. (1976). A wrinkle in time. New York: Dell Publishing.

LS5360: Newbery, Challenged.  I found four copies of this book in our house – and I am certain we sold several in a garage sale last summer.  I remember reading this one as a kid, and then discussing it with my kids as they read it. LOVED it then and LOVE it still!

 

For this blog, I’m going to try to break-out of robo-blogger mode and try something different: one sentence per plot element. Here goes. . .

Exposition:  The setting is “modern times,” taking place on numerous planets, told through third person limited omniscient point of view, mostly through the thoughts of self-depricating Meg Murry  and other primary characters of Charles Wallace, Calvin O’Keefe, and Mr. Murry – who is missing as the story opens.

(Okay, that was one sentence but it was STINKY.)

Conflict:  Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin make it to the planet where Mr. Murry is and encounter and have problems with the man with red eyes, and then Charles Wallace allows IT to control his mind, hoping that Charles Wallace can find the whereabouts of Mr. Murry, but endangering them all.

(Ewww. Another one sentence challenge stinker.)

Rising Action:  Charles Wallace’s personality changes because he’s under mind control, Calvin tries unsuccessfully to use his communication gift to break the mind control, and they witness some of the consequences of non-conformity on the planet Camazotz.

(not so stinky.)

Climax: Meg finds her father!

(Whoo hoo! A good single sentence explanation!)

Falling Action: After rescuing her father, Meg must now figure out how to save Charles Wallace from IT, and finds strength she didn’t know she had and rescues him.

(Ha! Two non-stinkers in a row.)

Resolution:  Meg, Charles Wallace, Mr. Murry, and Calvin all return to Earth, Meg is now self-confident, and the Murry family is whole and happy and back to normal again. . . for now.

(I’m on a roll.)

Literary Elements: There is symbolism (The Black Thing), imagery, and the allusions were plentiful with references to historical figures, literary references, and religious/philosophical references.  

(eh. Three on a scale of one to five.)