A Wrinkle In Time... I remember reading this book many years ago when I was in elementary school. I liked it then, but I remember thinking it was a whole lot longer then it actually is. I don't remember if I particularly enjoyed it back then, but I liked it this time around. I was a nice short read, but I was pretty into it during the time it did take me to read it. I also noticed this time around the religious presence in the novel. It got me to thinking about children/youth novels with Christian undertones. When I was younger I read a lot of books with religious undertones, because that's what my parents wanted me to read. I was not allowed to read Harry Potter for the longest time because of that, but now they are some of my favourite books. Anyways that was a side note.

I found A Wrinkle In Time, a kind of coming of age novel, particularly with Meg, which I liked because even though it is a fantasy type of novel, the character Meg hit home with me a lot of the time.

I thought it was interesting as well that the family is introduced as being a normal type of family, with not a lot of strangeness going on with them, but it turned out the family was anything but normal. I liked this aspect because it shows that even with a basic family structure, all families are unique and none are perfect. There are problems within all families, and seeing their family through a fantastical kind of light is like an over dramatization of that highlights the dysfunctions within family dynamics. Yet it also shows how families can come together for each other. The book seemed to be for me a new lens with which to view families.

The theological views of L'Engle are controversial, and that might be why I find the book so interesting. I read on Wikipedia that "This novel is on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 at number 22". I find that kind of exciting in a way, due to the fact that I read this book when I was younger. All of the mythical creatures and sci-fi like action mixed in with the subtle biblical references can defiantly be seen as controversial, and even offensive to some Christian people. But I think it makes an interesting point, mixing the magical with the religious, it shows a uniquely liberal approach to religion. It shows that within any part of life and any situation a person could if it suited them, apply a religious perspective/morals, and I think that is what this novel does. I joins religion and fantasy into the world.

We could view religion as morals and we could view magic as wild, and then mixing them together seems to make a perfect combination. A novel that expresses an opinion, with aspects of religion and fantasy. I could talk for longer about this, but I seem to be having a hard time turning my ideas into words!

Good Night!

-Laura