A WRINKLE IN TIME
It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.
"Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me be on my way. Speaking of way, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract."Meg's father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?
Of all the books I have ever read, A Wrinkle in Time is probably the first book that really impacted me in an unforgettable way. It is one of the first sci-fi/fantasy books I ever read or had read to me, and is at least partially responsible for my on-going love of those genres. When I was little, my dad would either read us a few pages of a story before bed. I remember the first time he read us A Wrinkle in Time, it was the first time I ever snuck the book down off the shelf and read ahead because I simply couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen to Meg and Charles Wallace. I sort of remember my dad being a little hurt that I'd read ahead (I may have been around 6 or 7 at the time), but I simply COULD NOT WAIT to find out what happened. I think he was worried I wouldn't be interested in the story if I already knew how it ended. But that wasn't the case. I loved listening to him read, even if I already knew what was going to happen.
I have never had a problem with re-reading books or re-watching movies. I love to revisit my favorite stories and characters over and over.
This is one of those stories I can always come back to. I checked it out of the library over and over again when I was little. When I wasn't sure what to read next, I would return to my old stand-by favorites. It's one of those stories where I realize something new from it every time I read it. And something about it transports me back to those evenings, gathered with my siblings around my dad as he read out loud and opened up new worlds for us to explore with his voice.
If you have never read this book, you are missing out. It has a bit of fantasy, a bit of sci-fi, and a whole lot of adventure.
How about you? What is a book from your childhood that has helped shape you into the person you are today?