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Summary: An exciting adventure Story
Review: As an 11 year-old, I enjoyed this book, though parts of it were confusing.
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Summary: While Waiting for Harry Potter to get here....
Review: ...we started reading this book. My 8 year old, who loves the Harry Potter series, would be content with the Bailey School kids while waiting for Harry. The Bailey School kids are fine for him to read alone, but I can't read another one in that series without falling asleep! We are a family of readers and writers, and one of our favorite things to do is sit and read to each other - what book would fill that need while we're waiting for the fourth Harry Potter book? We'd read C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia long ago (as far as we could get before it got too complex for us), so what were we to do? Then I remembered this book, sitting on my bookshelves from days gone by - the paperback version I have cost $1.25(! ) and had been first read by me and then by my older sons. I pulled it off the shelf, blew off the dust, opened it...and it fell apart. So I ordered up this book and the next two from Amazon. We got them soon, and haven't stopped reading yet (as of this writing, Harry's Fourth Book is ordered, but even the title is unknown). My son actually brings it to me, begging me to read some more (something that's only happened with Harry Potter so far.) As with Harry Potter and Chronicles of Nania, as we started reading, we got involved in the lives of some very likeable people and wanted to find out what was going on in their lives. We read two chapters at a sitting, which can be torture - what is going to happen next? Because the book was written long ago, it is delightfully empty of the extra angsts teenagers have to worry about today. One of Meg Murry's biggest worries is that she'll never be as beautiful as her own scientist mother. She is harrassed at school because of her 5 year old brother's brilliance (Charles Wallace is a genius who seems stupid to others). And her father's absence is the talk of the town (did her run off with someone?). Charles Wallace makes friends with Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Which, three strange old ladies who turn out to be much more than they seem. They know where the children's father is, and take Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin (Meg's hunky-nerdy classmate) to find him. The forces of evil are at work, though, and the children have to struggle to resist. One of them gets pulled in, and only one can save them all. When the book ends, you aren't left with a cliff-hanger (like the Anamorph series, for example). Things are settled and you can move on to something else, or do like we've done, and move onto the next book, A Wind in the Door. Like Chronicles, but unlike Harry, the author is sending a message - there are biblical references so discreet you won't notice them unless you already know of them. This is a book to read with your children. Many of the words are too difficult for a child to figure out and offers an opportunity to discuss many things with your child, while "visiting" with an unusual, yet ordinary, family you'll want to visit again!
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Summary: While Waiting for Harry.............
Review: It's difficult to find a book that will capture a young boy's interest while waiting for Harry, but my 9 year old son likes the story line so much, he's stopped playing Nintendo games to read. He's asked me to read to him over breakfast! Although the lead character in the first two books is a girl, Meg Murry, her younger, gifted brother Charles Wallace, plays a major role in all stories, especially the third book. There is a subtle message that I totally missed when I first read these books, some 20 odd years ago, a nice mixture of fantasy, life's meaning, and Meg's difficulty with her hot temper, which (in same situations) has some very positive value. The Murrys are real, loving and likeable. Author Madeline L'Engle uses the characters and the stories, to convey to us thoughts about good and evil, and the strength of a good spirit. You really need to read them in order, so try out the first one. This is an excellent family read together series.
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Summary: Best book of my childhood, of my life
Review: I know that my opinion doesn't mean as much to people because I am only 15. But, in all 15 years of my life, I have never read such a book as A Wrinkle in Time. I first read it in the 4th grade, and I have read it over 100 times since. It gives a child a basis for imagination through out the rest of their life. And it gives adults reason to look beyond their boring lives and see true imagination at its best. I, myself, identified with the main character, Meg, and how she felt so alone without her father, and how much she wanted to be with him agian. Over all, A Wrinkle in Time has changed my life, for the better and I am so thankful for Madeleine L'Engle for writing it for all humankind to enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: YAWWWWNNNNNNNNNN!
Review: Blah blah blah who cares. Ugh, I didnt give a hoot if they [the main charcters] died or not. The villian: a brain and a cloud. Oh wow, nobody can beat that! Cheese,I could have written a better book. Mrs. L'Engle if your gonna write anymore books please dont write them like this horrible peice of liturature. I can't imagine what the newberry awards people were thinking when the gave this book its reward.
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Summary: A Lifelong Favorite
Review: I received this book as a present for my eigth birthday, and almost 20 years later it is still the book I turn to on rainy days. Buy it for your children, or buy it for yourself! This book is a wonderful introduction to the Murray family, and you may follow them through three generations in later books. I think that many of my ideals of a good family life come from Madeline L'Engle's books, and I compare my life to these characters on at least a monthly basis.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much sermon, not enough story
Review: I read this book as a 10-year-old and rebought it now - 15 years later. I enjoyed the first chapter ("by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract" - cooool!) but then became more and more disappointed: the morale is too obvious, the characters are too one-dimensional and the writing often simply affirms feelings instead of evoking and explaining them. I loved the wacky old ladies and couldn't really imagine them changed into some beautiful wise creatures, constantly emanating love in the later chapters... And all this overstrained symbolism... So much of the book looked like a chliche to me - but maybe this is what happens to a classic: Read it some decades later and it has become a stereotype! I seem to have become suspicious against books with too obvious pedagogical intentions, even if they are truely thrilling like this one sometimes is. Probably this way of storytelling is okay for children: they love the story and they get the morale without paying TOO much attention to it (like I probably did now). There are other books for children that are pedagogical by way of the story not by mentioning "great waves of love" or hatred all the time - think of Roald Dahl, Astrid Lindgren or Michael Ende to name just a few, all of which have written allegorical stories, too. The difference is that even when reading the "Neverending Story" you never get the feeling that the morale overwhelms the plot. However, I've got a feeling I've been too hard with the book. It merits at least three stars for being very funny (especially at the beginning), at times thrilling and above all quite original.
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Summary: WoW
Review: Truly a phenomenol novel. An exellent fictional setting combined with a universal theme
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely a classic
Review: I have loved this book since childhood. In certain ways, I literally have even used it as a sort of ruler, against which I can measure my own spiritual growth... But remember one thing, O book buyer -- this is not science fiction. Whatever you may have heard, you have to realize that this is a book about love, and about learning to value yourself for the person you are deep down, even if that person has some outwardly appalling qualities -- and about trying to love others, even when there is little apparent reason to do so. There are a few quasi-scientific elements to the story, but that isn't really the point... Read this for the fantastic characters you will meet. Meg is relatively normal in many ways -- she has braces, and is sort of plain, and gets a lot of grief from all the jerks in her school who like to make fun of people. She has depth, but I will let you discover that for yourself. Charles Wallace, her brother, is one of the most interesting characters in all of children's literature. Think of Linus from "Peanuts", but even younger, and with a mysterious rapport with angelic figures. He is sort of a "genius" in many ways, but is viewed by his fellow townsfolk as the village idiot, much like "the fool on the hill" in the Beatles song who's mind's eye is drawn by the wonder of the word spinning 'round, while all those around him mock him for his lack of attention to more mundane concerns. The Murry family in general is really neat. You will want to belong to it. The parents are both brilliant scientists, Meg and Charles Wallace are two of the children, and then the twins have some good moments in Madeleine L'Engle's later books. They live in a beautiful old house, and are the only dreamers in their town, the only ones connected up to larger things... In some ways I was once disturbed by what I percieved to be a certain class bias in this book, i.e. the Murrys seem to have inherited their house, and there are no signs of any financial worry. However, if you have this feeling as well, look to some of the sequels for L'Engle's efforts to rectify this situation, especially "A Swiftly Tilting Planet". The tesseract is a "wrinkle in time", which is similar for story purposes to Dorothy's tornado; Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter's wardrobe; Milo's tollbooth; or any number of similar devices... Bear in mind when this was written, when you get to the part about Camazotz, the Conformist Capital of the Known Universe. This book came out first in the early 60s, and in many important ways can be seen as a reaction to Eisenhower era suburbia, with its plastic cheerfulness. A few years later, I wonder if the market for this might have diminished. At any rate, I am glad it was published, it has a lot of important things to say. Please read this if you are a child, or if you are an adult. There are different things you might take away from it, but I cannot imagine anyone reading this without being touched by it.
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Summary: A fulfilling and especially exciting novel...
Review: For young readers around the world, I would reccommend this book to many. This book, itself, is exceptional because of how the author goes in depth into the minds of the characters, especially Meg, the dull, yet intelligent and delightful young woman. The main synopsis is that Meg, her brother and a friend incredibly travel through time to reach Meg's father, who dissappeared years ago. They encounter mind powerful villans, such as "IT" and there is always something that you can look forward to in the next chapter. The setting of the novel changes as the three travel in search of their mission and is wonderful to follow along to. You will find this book enjoying just as I did and I truely do believe that this is one book that you will enjoy.
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