A childhood classic: A Wrinkle in Time

It was a dark and stormy night.

It’s a legendary line that has been used in books since 1830. But for me I associate that line with what was one of my favorite books in childhood.

I was in the 4^th grade the first time I read those words in the opening paragraph of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.  It’s the first book in her famous science fiction series and was published in 1962. I was 9 years old when the first time I was instantly drawn into the world of Meg Murray. Maybe it was because we shared the same name. Or maybe because I felt like a misfit a lot of time, the same as Meg. Maybe I adored this book because it was about time and space and things I loved. And maybe, just maybe, I loved it simply because for once I was reading an adventure sci-fi book where the lead character was a girl--just like me.

Whatever the reason, in those first few pages I was drawn into a world that would forever change my life.

I don’t remember exactly how old I was when I wrote my first story, but it was somewhere around the time I read A Wrinkle In Time the first of many times. I wrote about a girl who discovered a cave that enabled her to travel through time. It was the beginning of my life long passion for reading and for writing. And it was in huge part due to the profound effect Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time had on me.

To this very day I still have that very first copy of A Wrinkle in Time. It meant enough to me to keep it close by though my childhood, my teen years and into adulthood through many moves and life changing events. Now I sit here in my 30s, ready to plan our summer reading list, I have that same book sitting right beside me. And I am full of excitement as I get ready to draw my own daughter into the world of Tesseracts and science and magic.

What SheHeroic books inspired you growing up and which of them do you look forward to sharing with your SheHero this summer?

“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”

― Madeleine L'Engle