A Wrinkle in Time (Special Edition, 50th Anniversary)

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) was the Newbery Medal-winning author of more than 60 books, including the much-loved A Wrinkle in Time. Born in 1918, L'Engle grew up in New York City, Switzerland, South Carolina and Massachusetts. Her father was a reporter and her mother had studied to be a pianist, and their house was always full of musicians and theater people. L'Engle graduated cum laude from Smith College, then returned to New York to work in the theater. While touring with a play, she wrote her first book, The Small Rain, originally published in 1945. She met her future husband, Hugh Franklin, when they both appeared in The Cherry Orchard.

Upon becoming Mrs. Franklin, L'Engle gave up the stage in favor of the typewriter. In the years her three children were growing up, she wrote four more novels. Hugh Franklin temporarily retired from the theater, and the family moved to western Connecticut and for ten years ran a general store. Her book Meet the Austins, an American Library Association Notable Children's Book of 1960, was based on this experience.

Her science fantasy classic A Wrinkle in Time was awarded the 1963 Newbery Medal. Two companion novels, A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet (a Newbery Honor book), complete what has come to be known as The Time Trilogy, a series that continues to grow in popularity with a new generation of readers. Her 1980 book A Ring of Endless Light won the Newbery Honor. L'Engle passed away in 2007 in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Imagine 1962.

· John F. Kennedy was the president of the United States.

· The manned space program was in its infancy (John Glenn orbited the earth four times); the first commercially sponsored communication satellite, Telstar, was launched; and the unmanned space probe,, Mariner II, flew past Venus.

· James D. Watson, Maurice H. F. Wilkins, and Francis H. Crick won the Nobel Prize for determining the structure of DNA.

· The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the U.S. and Russia to the brink of war.

· James Meredith was escorted by U.S. marshals into the University of Mississippi as he registered for classes.

· To Kill a Mockingbird and The Manchurian Candidate were playing in movie theaters. The Yankees won the World Series again, and a first-class postage stamp was $.04.

These are the scientific, political, and social landscapes that existed when A Wrinkle in Time was first read by young people in America. Many things have changed since then, but the book remains a favorite of students and teachers alike, because, one hand, it is a work of science fiction and fantasy that transcends the everyday to illuminate large themes and concerns, and on the other, it deals with the small and large realities of young people's lives: relationships among friends and family, courage, conformity, and growing up. On top of that, it's a great adventure story with characters kids care about.

A Wrinkle in Time is, in short, a classic, a part of young people's heritage and culture.
In this guide, we've provided questions for contemplation and discussion, activities for exploration, and teaching connections to science, social studies, history, and literature.

“A Wrinkle in Time is one of my favorite books of all time. I've read it so often, I know it by heart. Meg Murry was my hero growing up. I wanted glasses and braces and my parents to stick me in an attic bedroom. And I so wanted to save Charles Wallace from IT.” —Meg Cabot

“A book that every young person should read, a book that provides a road map for seeking knowledge and compassion even at the worst of times, a book to make the world a better place.” —Cory Doctorow

“[L'Engle's] work is one of the things that made me a writer, a science fiction and fantasy fan, an avid reader. Hers were the first books I read that mixed math and magic, the quest and the quantum.” —Scott Westerfeld

“A Wrinkle in Time taught me that you can tackle even the deepest and most slippery concepts of physics and philosophy in fiction for young readers. It's a great lesson for all writers, and a tough tesseract to follow.” —David Lubar