I picked up A Wrinkle in Time again recently, and I was sucked in again almost immediately. That very first scene, where Meg is alone in her attic room and the wind is howling all around her, reminded me of how I felt when I first read this book. I felt alone and vulnerable too. Then the book goes on to tell us more about Meg. She was smart but not a good student. She has brown hair. She isn't well liked by her classmates. She feels like an outsider. I so identified. I too was a mousy brown-haired outsider who had trouble understanding the complex world of adolescent friendships. I bet that most people reading this book for the first time feel some of that. Maybe it's just the time of life that most of us read it, or maybe it's that us weirdos are drawn to this type of story. Either way, I immediately found someone I could identify with, and I couldn't help but read on. 

The story goes on, and we get to meet Meg's family. She has three younger brothers. The twins are fairly self-contained. They have each other and enough social skill to get by at school just fine. But Meg's youngest brother, Charles Wallace, is an entirely different kind of kid. They live with their mom, a scientist, in a big house just outside of town. Their dad has disappeared, they haven't heard from him in months, and the rumors are buzzing around. 

During the storm, Meg goes downstairs to make herself some cocoa, to fight off the coldness of the wind and of the day, and she finds Charles Wallace waiting for her. He has a way of knowing where she is and what she's feeling without her having to tell him. He's already put the milk on for the cocoa, for Meg and for their mom, who joins them in a minute. 

From there we meet Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, a trio of kind women with gifts of their own, and Calvin O'Keefe, an upperclassman at Meg's school who turns out to be a kindred spirit. And now that the group is all assembled, we can get on with the journey, a twisted path of faith and science that takes the kids to find their dad and took me on a trip through time as well, right back to that awkward 12-year-old girl who found most of her friends in the pages of books like this one.

Although A Wrinkle in Time is considered a children's book, it is timeless. The writing and storytelling are sophisticated enough for adults to enjoy also. So if you haven't read it yet, pick it up immediately. And if you did read it as a kid, pick it up again and see what it means to you now. I know that as I've gotten older and have discovered new dimensions to time, re-reading A Wrinkle in Time takes on a whole new meaning. 

Madeline L'Engle was a gifted writer and a national treasure. A new ebook of her first Crosswicks Journal, A Circle of Quiet came out not too long ago, and I got a chance to read it. Interested? Click here for more and head to your favorite bookstore as soon as possible.