A Wrinkle In Time - It's Where To Start

I love reading. I'm one of those people who just love to read for the sheer pleasure of reading. When I was little my mother started reading to me. When I turned 5 she started having us read books together, we would take turns reading and I would take a paragraph then she would. By the age of 7 I was reading to her every night. This ritual of reading set in motion a life long habit I keep to this day. I still can't sleep until I've read a few chapters of my book, no matter how tired I am. It's a tradition that I have passed down to both of my sons. But it wasn't just relegated to night time. I was rarely seen without a book in my hand, and remain that way to this day. So when I was old enough to get a job at a library I jumped on the chance. It was all the things I love, books, movies and instilling a love of reading to children.

I've read many books in my life, but when anyone asks me what my favorite book was as a kid, my answer is immediate, and it's always the book I recommend young people to read when they are just starting to get interested in reading. When I was in 5th grade, our teacher introduced us to Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time. Our teacher, Mr. Moses, read us a chapter a day and I remember sitting there enthralled, hanging on his every word day after day. I had never read anything like it before, and couldn't help drawing the parallels from this children's science fiction story to my own life in a very profound way. The story's protagonist, Meg Murry, appealed to me because she was so much like me. Dealing with the divorce of my parents and the absence of my own father I couldn't help but feel a deep connection to Meg on an emotional level. Which, in essence, is what reading is designed to do to the reader. Because of this emotional impact, this story has stayed with me, all these years later and is a book I always hope to share with students and parents alike.

A Wrinkle In Time won the Newberry Medal for Fiction and is the first book in the Time Quintet. It follows Meg Murry, her twin siblings Sandy and Dennys, and her young genius brother Charles Wallace. After the disappearance of their scientist father, Alexander, Meg is a troubled and angry child who acts out but desperately wants to do great things to make her father proud. After a visit from their eccentric neighbor, Mrs. Whatsit, she learns of the last project her father was working on before his disappearance. Through a series of events led by Mrs. Whatsit, the children then embark on a fantastic journey, along with Meg's best friend, Calvin, that puts all of the truths Meg thinks she knows to the test, and ultimately teaches her that she does, indeed, have the strength needed within herself to do great things.

Because 5th grade is such a transitional grade in the life of a child, that cusp between elementary school and secondary school, this was an integral piece of literature for me. For a student struggling with self-confidence and a need to prove their self, having a strong female character such as Meg Murry helped me understand not only more about myself, but helped me see that great things are possible when we just believe in the power within ourselves. If you haven't read A Wrinkle In Time and it's subsequent stories, I highly recommend you do!