My favourite author as a child has died. Madeleine L’Engle’s sweet novel, A Wrinkle in Time, combined science fiction and the power of love with a strong female lead. It buoyed me through many a hard time as a science-inclined geeky girl. Even for adults, the book, or at least the book’s path, holds some insights:
What turned out to be her masterpiece was rejected by 26 publishers. Editors at Farrar, Straus and Giroux loved it enough to publish it, but told her that she should not be disappointed if it failed.
…
“A Wrinkle in Time,†… won the John Newbery Award as the best children’s book of 1963. By 2004, it had sold more than 6 million copies, was in its 67th printing and was still selling 15,000 copies a year.
According to the article A Wrinkle in Time is one of the most banned books in the US for its treatment of the deity. Sounds like I made a good choice.
I reread it a few years ago and it didn’t retain the power it once held. Few childhood books do, I suppose. However, it remains a classic that should be read by all girls just a little bit on the geeky side.