A Reading Guide to a Wrinkle in Time

Almost THIS Volume

Fourteen-yr-erstwhile Meg Murry, her younger brother, Charles Wallace, and best friend, Calvin O'Keefe, are in search of her scientist begetter when one stormy nighttime an unearthly visitor takes them on a fantastic voyage to rescue her him. Can they overpower the forces of evil on their journey through infinite?
An Excerpt from A Wrinkle in Fourth dimension "When are we going home?" Meg asked anxiously. "What about Female parent? What almost the twins? They'll be terribly worried about us. When nosotros didn't come in at bedtime--well, Mother must be frantic by at present. She and the twins and Fort will take been looking and looking for u.s.a., and or form nosotros aren't there to be found!"

"At present, don't worry, my pet," Mrs. Whatsit said cheerfully. "We took intendance of that before nosotros left. Your mother has had enough to worry her with you and Charles to cope with, and not knowing about your father, without our adding to her anxieties. We took a time wrinkle also as a space contraction. It's very easy to do if you just know how."

Excerpted from A Contraction in Fourth dimension by Madeleine L'Engle. Copyright © 1962 by Madeleine L'Engle Franklin. Excerpted with permission from Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, Inc. All rights reserved.

ABOUT THIS AUTHOR

Madeleine L'Engle is the author of more than twoscore-v books for all ages, among them the honey A Wrinkle in Time, awarded the Newbery Medal; A Band of Endless Low-cal, a Newbery Award Book; A Swiftly Tilting Planet, winner of the American Volume Award; and the Austin family serial of which Troubling a Star is the fifth volume. Fifty'Engle was named the 1998 recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards award, honoring her lifetime contribution in writing for teens.

Today, Ms. L'Engle lives in New York Urban center and Connecticut, writing at home and at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where she is variously the librarian and the writer-in-residence. "It depends from day-to-day on what they want to telephone call me. I exercise keep the library collection--largely theology, philosophy, a lot of good reference books--open on a volunteer basis."

Educational activity IDEAS

In the Classroom

Suggested Classroom Activities

Madeleine L'Engle'due south fourth dimension-travel risk novels call upon readers to remember about the boxing between good and evil. L'Engle brilliantly deals with this and other themes such as love, courage, and family relationships--themes that are as of import today as when Contraction was written over three decades ago.

Each of the four Fourth dimension Quartet books stands lonely, and so any one would make an fantabulous choice for reading aloud as well equally a class novel study.

Use this guide to initiate word in your classroom and to integrate the novels into all areas of the curriculum. Nosotros invite y'all and your students to join Million, Charles Wallace, and the others on their adventures. Tesser well!

Pre-Reading Activity

To fix for a study of Fifty'Engle's fourth dimension-travel adventure stories, inquire students to define fantasy and science fiction. What is the distinction between the two genres? And then ask them to list popular movies and tv shows that fit into these genres. Have them talk over which they consider fantasy and which science fiction--or a combination.

Thematic Connections

Adept vs. Evil
In A Wrinkle in Time, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which take Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace to the planet Uriel. There, as they come across The Dark Affair, a shadow that is creeping over the cosmos, the children begin to understand the historic period-erstwhile struggle between the forces of good and evil. Have students make two columns on a big sheet of paper; ane column should be labeled "good," and the other "evil." Beginning with Love and Hate, one in each column, ask students to list other characteristics of these forces.

In each of the novels, members of the Murry family learn important lessons when they encounter evil forces. Ask students to identify the conflict in each novel and discuss the overall theme of skilful vs. evil. How are these conflicts resolved? What does each Murry child learn about the ability of honey?

In A Wind in the Door, Charles Wallace is tormented past his classmates. Meg says, "Information technology'due south not right in the U.s.a. of America that a little kid shouldn't be safety in school" (p. 47). Engage the class in a discussion almost the prophylactic issues facing public schools today, for example bullying, weapons, gangs, etc. How are these bug considered "evil" forces?

Courage and Laurels
In A Wrinkle in Fourth dimension, 1000000 experiences various types of dearest throughout her adventure. When she returns to Camazotz for Charles Wallace, she learns that love tin can enable her to be brave in the face of danger. It provides her with the force that she needs to overcome evil. Inquire students to trace the development of Meg's understanding of the power of beloved and discuss or write well-nigh it in an essay format.

In some ways, Charles Wallace might be considered the about mettlesome Murry. Encourage students to compare and contrast his courageous journey in A Wind in the Door to his adventures in A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

The Murry twins, Sandy and Dennys, have their first fourth dimension-travel hazard in Many Waters. As the "practical" members of the family, they are very frightened throughout most of their trip. Ask students to talk over whether it takes courage to exist "practical" and "ordinary" in a family similar the Murrys. How might existence "practical" and "ordinary" crusade anyone to be frightened upon entering a new feel? Exercise the twins become more courageous by the finish of the novel?

Dealing with Giftedness
Charles Wallace realizes that he is unlike. While he is intellectually gifted, he lacks the concrete power to exercise things like the other boys in his class. Enquire students to begin characteristics of an intellectually gifted child. Make a chart for each of the Murry children and Calvin O'Keefe and cite testify from the novels that indicates that each kid might be considered gifted.

Family and Relationships
Have students written report the Murry-O'Keefe family tree which tin be plant in the back of any of the 35th anniversary commemorative editions. Inquire each pupil to select one person from the tree and blueprint a folio about that person's life and adventures to be included in a Murry-O'Keefe family scrapbook. Compile the pages and bind it.

Interdisciplinary Connections

Language Arts
In A Wrinkle in Fourth dimension, Mrs. Whatsit compares life to a sonnet (p. 179) as a means to explicate the concept of freedom within a structure of constraints or rules. Ask for a volunteer to look up a more complete description of this poetic class and explicate it to the course. Have each student select a character in the book and write a verse form that this character might write to another character in the book.

L'Engle's time-travel take chances novels exercise not fit neatly into a literary nomenclature such as science fiction or fantasy. Enquire students to refer to the questions asked in the pre-reading activity and decide how they would classify these novels.

Invite students to write a diary entry that Sandy or Dennys might have written on the night of their return home in Many Waters.

Mythology
Ask students to discuss how mythology is appropriate for study in literature and social studies. Have them make a listing of the mythological beasts that the Murry children encounter in their travels (for example, unicorns, manticores, dragons). Make a flick dictionary entitled "Mythological Characters in Madeleine 50'Engle'southward Time Quartet."

Social Studies
In Europe, dragons are portrayed every bit ferocious beasts. In Asia, they are considered friendly. How are Charles Wallace's dragons portrayed in A Wind in the Door? Ask students to discover stories about dragons from unlike parts of the world and share the various ways the dragons are portrayed. What do these stories reveal nigh the different cultures of the world?

In A Swiftly Tilting Planet, the dictator Madog Branzillo is threatening to destroy the earth. Through Charles Wallace's travels, adept overtakes evil and the earth is saved. Identify the major bug facing our nation regarding civil defense and nuclear warfare. Why should these issues be discussed in both science and social studies?

Science
In A Wind in the Door, Dr. Louise, the Murry family physician, remembers when astronauts first went to the moon. Ask students to research John Glenn's starting time trip into outer infinite. Then, locate current events about his 2d trip into space. What do scientists and physicians look to learn from his return trip?

In Many Waters, Alarid says to Dennys that the air and water on Earth take been "soiled." Encourage students to identify the most serious problems with pollution in their city or town. Ask them to write an editorial for the paper suggesting ways to preserve make clean air and water.

Math/Scientific discipline
The concepts underlying A Contraction in Time are based on Einstein'due south theory of relativity and Planck'south quantum theory. Have a math or scientific discipline teacher explicate these theories to the class. And then take students discuss how these theories work in A Wrinkle in Time.

Art
L'Engle's vivid descriptions make reading her time-travel novels a highly visual experience. Artistically inclined students may desire to create a series of paintings or drawings that illustrate creatures and places from these novels.

Unicorns are the subject of many art works from ancient and medieval times. Amongst the most famous is a tapestry called "The Chase of the Unicorn." Send students to the media heart or library to notice out the origin of this tapestry. In what museum would Charles Wallace find this work of fine art? Inquire students to write a alphabetic character that Charles Wallace might write to Meg describing his feel of viewing this particular tapestry.

Utilize of Linguistic communication

Often fantasy has a unique linguistic communication. Ask students to record such unique words as they read Fifty'Engle'due south time-travel novels. They may wish to make a glossary for each novel.

Culminating Activity

Madeleine Fifty'Engle says, "Responding to fantasy, fairy tale, and myth is responding to one universal language." Hash out how these three genres of literature unite the cultures of the earth, creating a universal language.

Teaching Ideas prepared by Elizabeth A. Poe, acquaintance professor of English language, Radford University, Radford, VA, and by Pat Scales, library media specialist, Greenville Heart School, Greenville, SC.

DISCUSSION AND WRITING

A word from the author. . .

Madeleine Fifty'Engle reflects on the 35th anniversary of A Wrinkle in Fourth dimension . . .

Information technology is an indication that stories have a life of their ain, and that they say different things to different people at unlike times.

In the Time novels, Meg and Polly ask some big questions. Many of us enquire these questions equally we're growing up, but nosotros tend to let them get because there's so much else to do. I write the books I practice because I'm still asking the questions. . . .

It's so exciting that it makes me want to write, to write near what goes on in the great macrocosm exterior us, and in the equally dandy microcosm of the very pocket-size. Then I send Meg to the outer galaxies and into the microcosm of mitochondria and farandolae, and send Meg and Charles Wallace and Polly into time past and fourth dimension futurity. In each volume the characters are living into the questions that we all have to live into. Some of these questions don't have finite answers, but the questions themselves are important. Don't stop asking, and don't allow anybody tell you the questions aren't worth it. They are. And information technology'south good to share them with people like 1000000 and Calvin and Charles Wallace and even Zachary.

If anybody invited yous to get to a newly discovered galaxy, would you go? I would. It's a wonderful way to encounter new and exciting people.

Story always tells us more than the mere words, and that is why nosotros dear to write it, and to read it.

AWARDS

Awards for A Wrinkle in Time:
A Newbery Medal Book
An ALA Notable Children'south Volume

Awards for A Wind in the Door:
An IRA-CBC Children'southward Pick

Awards for A Swiftly Tilting Planet:
An IRA-CBC Children's Choice

REVIEWS

Reviews for A Wrinkle in Time:

"Has the full general advent of existence science fiction, but it'south non. There is a mystery, mysticism, an indefinable, heart-searching horror....[This book] is original, dissimilar, heady."
-- Saturday Review

"Fascinating....It makes unusual demands on the imagination and consequently give bang-up rewards."
-- The Horn Book

Reviews for A Wind in the Door:

"This is breathtaking entertainment."
--Starred, Library Journal

"Madeleine L'Engle mixes classical theology, gimmicky family life, and futuristic science fiction to make a completely convincing tale that should put under its spell both readers familiar with the Murrys and those meeting them for the first time."
-- The New York Times Book Review

Reviews for A Swiftly Tilting Planet:

"Theme is L'Engle's greatest forte and once again she proves this with a compelling plot, rich in fashion, that vibrates with provocative thoughts on universal dear, individual caring, and the demand for joy in living."
--Starred, Booklist

"L'Engle's gifts are at their most impressive here."-- Publishers Weekly

Reviews for Many Waters:

"A advisedly wrought fable . . . this volition exist enjoyed for its suspense and humor every bit well as its other levels of meaning."
--Pointer, Kirkus Reviews

Farther READING

An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle[0-440-20814-ix]
The Giver by Lois Lowry[0-440-21907-8]

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Source: https://www.booksontape.com/teachers-guide/96850/a-wrinkle-in-time/

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