The following is an excerpt from the January 2018 Smithsonian Magazine.
“When Léna Roy was seven-years-old, her teacher read the first chapter of A Wrinkle in Time aloud to her second-grade class. After school, Léna ran to her grandmother’s house, which was around the corner from her school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, to finish the book on her own. She curled up in bed and devoured it. She felt just like the hotheaded, stubborn heroine Meg Murry, and took comfort in the fact that a flawed adolescent girl could save the world. “It was almost like your permission to be a real person,” Roy says. ‘You don’t have to be perfect.’”
“Since its 1962 publication, Wrinkle has sold more than ten million copies and been turned into a graphic novel, an opera and two films, including an ambitious adaptation from the director Ava DuVernay due out in March. The book also kicked open the door for other bright young heroines and the amazingly lucrative franchises they appear in, from whip-smart Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter books to lethal Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games.”
“While Meg Murry and her companions traveled through time and space to save her father, a scientist trapped by evil forces on a distant planet, readers had to wrap their minds around the fifth dimension, the horrors of conformity and the power of love. L’Engle believed that literature should show youngsters they were capable of taking on the forces of evil in the universe, not just the everyday pains of growing up. ‘If it’s not good enough for adults,” she once wrote, ‘it’s not good enough for children.’”
“Publishers hated it. Every firm her agent turned to rejected the manuscript. One advised to do a cutting job on it – by half. Another complained it’s something between an adult and juvenile novel. Finally, a friend advised L’Engle to send it to one of the most prestigious houses of all, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. John Farrar liked the manuscript. A test reader he gave it to, though, was unimpressed: ‘I think this is the worst book I have ever read, it reminds me of The Wizard of Oz.’ Yet FSG acquired it, and Hal Vursell, the book’s editor, talked it up in letters he sent to reviewers: ‘It’s distinctly odd, extremely well written,’ he wrote to one, ‘and is going to make greater intellectual and emotional demands on 12 to 16-year-olds than most formula fiction for this age group.’”
Have you read A Wrinkle in Time? The movie has just been released so check it out! Let us know on this one: should you read the book first or not? What did you think of the movie? Write up your review and you might get it published in an upcoming Library Corner article!
Library News:
March 14 – Help us make the library lot a welcoming place by installing features for outdoor enjoyment and safety. Roanoke Valley Gives: You can donate until Wednesday at midnight! www.rvgives.org
April 15 – Deadline for the photo contest. Theme: Historic Treasures of Craig County. Submit photos to craiglibrary@swva.net. Gift card prizes for Food Country for winners in three categories: children, teens and adults.
April 20 – Stargazing night with Roanoke Valley Astronomy. Stay tuned for details!
Book Barn Book Sales: Ongoing all the time, just ask a library assistant for help! There are many treasures to be found!
Volunteer are always needed. We have large and small jobs! A current need is for someone to build shelves on one wall in the non-fiction book barn. Please see Letha at the library if you can help!
