A Wrinkle In Time – by L'Engle Madeleine

I just got done reading a Wrinkle In Time with my kids and it’s a remarkable book that is well ahead of its time. I have always enjoyed reading books that are several grades higher for my kids because we tend to have great discussions when complex topics come up in a book. For Marvel (MCU) fans, its amazing that this book was written in the 1960s and the author talks about a Tesseract for time travel!

The author wrote a children’s book but does not shy away from very complex topics. Towards the end of the book, she discusses the concept of freedom within a set of constraints. I paraphrase: “Sonnet’s are a very strict form of poetry with 14 lines, all in iambic pentameter. That a very strict rhythm. Each line also has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet. But within this strict form, the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants to say. Life is similar – you are given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself”. Where do you see an author describe such a high level concept in a Children’s Book?

The author constantly brings us face to face with mind bending concepts. ?A part of the story occurs on a planet where the creatures are blind in the sense we think of ‘blindness’ but they see much more because they experience life in a much more holistic way. I quote: “We look not at the things which are what you would call seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal. But the things which are not seen are eternal”. I am amazed that this book was written back in the 1960s.

The book also tackles and challenges our notions of beauty, speech, friendship, time travel and many other marvelous concepts. It’s a beautifully written book and one that is hard to put down once you start reading it. I highly recommend this piece of art.?