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A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wrinkle in Time
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A Wrinkle in Time

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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NEWBERY MEDAL WINNER • TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST FANTASY BOOKS OF ALL TIME • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM DISNEY

Read the ground-breaking science fiction and fantasy classic that has delighted children for over 60 years!

"A Wrinkle in Time is one of my favorite books of all time. I've read it so often, I know it by heart." —Meg Cabot

Late one night, three otherworldly creatures appear and sweep Meg Murry, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe away on a mission to save Mr. Murray, who has gone missing while doing top-secret work for the government. They travel via tesseract--a wrinkle that transports one across space and time--to the planet Camazotz, where Mr. Murray is being held captive. There they discover a dark force that threatens not only Mr. Murray but the safety of the whole universe.

A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet.

Editor's Note

Continues to enthrall…

“A Wrinkle in Time” is a strange delight that contains everything from thorough explorations of time travel to strong, vulnerable characters. One of few books that continues to completely enthrall children and adults alike.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 1, 2010
ISBN9781429915649
A Wrinkle in Time
Author

Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) was the Newbery Medal-winning author of more than 60 books, including the much-loved A Wrinkle in Time. Born in 1918, L'Engle grew up in New York City, Switzerland, South Carolina and Massachusetts. Her father was a reporter and her mother had studied to be a pianist, and their house was always full of musicians and theater people. L'Engle graduated cum laude from Smith College, then returned to New York to work in the theater. While touring with a play, she wrote her first book, The Small Rain, originally published in 1945. She met her future husband, Hugh Franklin, when they both appeared in The Cherry Orchard. Upon becoming Mrs. Franklin, L'Engle gave up the stage in favor of the typewriter. In the years her three children were growing up, she wrote four more novels. Hugh Franklin temporarily retired from the theater, and the family moved to western Connecticut and for ten years ran a general store. Her book Meet the Austins, an American Library Association Notable Children's Book of 1960, was based on this experience. Her science fantasy classic A Wrinkle in Time was awarded the 1963 Newbery Medal. Two companion novels, A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet (a Newbery Honor book), complete what has come to be known as The Time Trilogy, a series that continues to grow in popularity with a new generation of readers. Her 1980 book A Ring of Endless Light won the Newbery Honor. L'Engle passed away in 2007 in Litchfield, Connecticut.

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Rating: 4.075785582255083 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I loved it...cried and cried.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Interesting read although the scientist aspects are not quite correct.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    (I always wondered where Snoopy got the sentence "It was a dark and stormy night." when ever he started a story on his typewriter! )This science fiction novel is about Meg, her little brother Charles Wallace and her friend Calvin traveling to other worlds in search of Meg and Charles Wallace's father. Mr. Murry disappeared many years earlier after discovering how to travel to other worlds. I found this book still relevant to day with the current study of string and membrane theories of our universe that is currently being explored. Though I did feel the ending was too quick and simple. This would be a great book to use along with a science unit about space or astronomy.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This novel is full of adventure as Meg, Calvin, and Charles travel through time to save her father from 'it'. I really enjoyed this book. It shies away from using simple vocabulary and complex problems within the book. Teachers can use passages of this book for readers' theater. Since the movie version of this book recently came out, students could also compare and contrast the two. This book could also be used in a genre study for science fiction.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a re-read of a book I read frequently when I was younger. It probably isn't quite the same for me, because of the span of years and experiences that separate me from that girl, but...it still has a female protagonist, and not one that is smooth and suave and solidly sure of herself, like Nancy Drew. It is a girl I can still relate to - awkward, scared, socially inept, and totally out of place in the world created by other people. The writing sounds somewhat stilted to me now, and the characters are not developed as fully as I might like them to be, especially the crucial characters of Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, but I did my best not to impose 21st century writing expectations on a book that was published in 1962. I just relaxed and enjoyed it. I didn't remember the religious silliness from when I was younger (I was less likely to notice it then), but it was much less than the rather lightweight movie made from the book.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    More religion and less science (really, no science, beyond defining "tesseract") than I expected. Shelve this one next to the Chronicles of Narnia--it's less specifically Christian, but just as much a morality play.

    Also, I don't believe that Charles Wallace is 5 and Meg is in high school.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a science fiction children's book, winner the Newbery Medal in 1963. It is also one of the most challenged books. There are plenty of reviews singing its praises. With all this in mind I was really expecting to like it. But it didn't fulfil those expectations. In this case I know exactly why that happened: I read it too late.A Wrinkle in Time is the story of Charles Wallace, his sister Meg and his friend Calvin. They are trying to save Charles and Meg's father, a scientist that has been missing for quite a while. They have the help of three curious ladies: Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Which and Mrs. Who. These will take them out of Earth to Camazotz where the evil IT has made Charles and Meg's father his prisoner.I really didn't like the trio in adventure. Well, none of the trios. Because if there is something that is repeated here is the number 3. But back to the characters. Of the three kids that go to save Charles' father, the only one I cared a bit about was Calvin. Maybe because he appeared later on the book, or he wasn't really on the Murry family (or maybe because he was a red-head, probably that). Charles Wallace (and who calls that to a child – and I mean every time they talk to him – what a mouthful!) was just plain creepy. As child wonder, he talks very much like an adult, (actually, better than a lot of adults I know), and he is quite intelligent and perceptive of other people's emotions. And while I like smart kids, Charles had no child-like behaviour that to me he was just a very arrogant adult in a child's body. So yes, Charles was creepy. Meg, the heroine, never really managed to captivate me. She seemed to complain all the time, but do the things all the same. She probably had some depth there that was lost on me. I'm quite sure that the characters' flaws would pass unnoticed had I read A Wrinkle in Time fifteen or ten years ago. But comparing to what I read nowadays, I couldn't fail to notice and cringe at them. And that brings to another thing that bothered me in this book. The fact that our adventurers were children (this accepting that Charles Wallace is indeed four).Now, I have no problem with reading about kids having adventures, even if they turn out to be quite dangerous. However, I do have a problem with adults sending children on those adventures, knowing that it is dangerous, and when they could have solved the problem themselves. Although it is explained later on the book why Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which couldn't go to Camazotz, it always felt that they were cowering behind 3 small children. The reason they gave even sounded more like excuse. The first part of the book didn't impress me. It was setting the scene and introducing the cast of characters – well, its was really getting to know their flaws. It is unremarkable, and just a way to get to the part where the action begins. The positive part is that it can be read quickly.When the cast finally reaches Camazotz the book picks up. The Science Fiction appears, with its dystopia and mind controlling evil overlord. That I liked, it is exactly my sort of thing. And while the rest of the book is just mediocre, the Camazotz part is pretty good. If I had read this as a child I would be seriously frightened by that place. Even now, it causes some discomfort. Still, despite being a good dystopia, it was all very rushed and didn't make much sense. I will not be continuing this series. The first book was enough for me, as I didn't really care for the characters, and there were few things about the plot that I liked.Also at Spoilers and Nuts
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Reread this book with 7-year-old Giana in anticipation of the movie. She enjoyed the book but didn't want to read the last chapter so she could be surprised when we went to the movie.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Hummmm. This is mightily inventive. The Mrses. Whatsit, Who and Which are fun (although I got mightily tired of Who's quotations and the general 1950s "being clever means knowing big words and/or obscure facts and/or having a facility for doing math quickly in your head" thing). The Beasts are so lovely and I remember them best from reading this as a kid.
    But what i can't remember from reading this as a kid is how far through it I actually got - most individual scenes are memorable,but it doesn't cohere very well as a narrative. There is way too much time spent at the start fucking around in their little town. It is didactic and proper - you can tell Charles Wallace is turning evil because, horrors, he calls his dad "Pops" not "Father." And everything just happens too fast, in a psychologically unrealistic way. Even in Narnia, some winning around of the talking mice and dwarves and whatnot was always necessary (by Prince Casipan, say) before they all fall on their knees and go "High King! I love you because we are on the same side!" And that was in a medieval milieu where "love" can be taken as meaning something different. This is modern, and the characters seem to form allegiances unrealitically swiftly for the convenience of the narrative.
    And actually, a lot of their actions are for the convenience of the narrative. Which, once again, is fime in a fairy story, but not when you're trying to be all mid-20th century positivist sciency. I'll give you one example: when Charles Wallace is taken over by IT (exactly what you'd call yourself when you want to rule over a totalitarian state and be loved and feared, right? Not "Big Brother" or "Rev. Moon," but "IT"?), he is walking toward the dude and the guards somehow don't intervene when Meg tackles him - there's just enough time for her to act and fail, like in D&D when you want to make a setback for your party a little easier to bear so you give the illusion that they could have stopped it with a higher roll?So yeah, the choreography shows in the business and mood swings, and the dialogue is stilted and the Christianity intrusive (but looking at the other reviews, give her a break, guys - it's not CS Lewis intrusive) but still - hugely inventive and unique.
    Except for "IT", I mean. I dunno. I like this book, perhaps unaccountably, but I keep going back to add further negative notes, so maybe I'll just revise its rating downward.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    a story where kids go another world to rescue their dad
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin set off an quite an adventure to find Meg’s father and bring him home. With the help of three mythical creatures and Aunt Beast, they strive on to accomplish their quest. The author does a masterful job of writing fantasy that includes the overtones of religious writings and yet enters the realm of fantasy wholeheartedly. Elements of suspense and mystery will engage readers of all ages in this timeless classic.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I first read this about thirty years ago after my daughter's kindergarten teacher read it out loud to her class. With the new movie released, I decided a reread was in order before watching the movie. Meg's family is quite unusual – her mother is a scientist working at her laboratory in their home. Meg's youngest brother, 6 year old Charles Wallace, is a genius who works at appearing not-to-bright. Supposedly Meg's father, also a scientist, was on a secret mission for NASA when he mysteriously went missing. Local rumors are far less kind. Meg herself is far brighter than she appears, but is so affected by her father's disappearance four years ago, that she is barely able to function in school. And then appears a magical being into their life – Mrs Whatsit, bedecked in sheets stolen from the neighborhood. After meeting her companions, Mrs Who and Mrs Which, Meg, Charles Wallace, and Meg's friend Calvin go in search of Dr Murry. It's true he that he was on a secret mission and learned how to tesseract – traveling great distances by traveling through a wrinkle in time. He is now being held on a far planet by a great evil called IT. It takes great love to his follow his trail and attempt to free him.Like [The Narnia Books] this is a Christian allegory, written for a young audience.For some reason, although I like it, it just doesn't push the 'most beloved book of childhood' button for me. Perhaps it's because I read it too late in life. Sigh.3.5 stars
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A great classic, it's enjoyable and full of moments that spark the imagination.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I somehow never encountered this book when I was young, but I'm certain that I would have enjoyed it, particularly with the strong female characters. The only thing that turned me off a bit were a couple of overtly religious passages. Those seemed out of place with the tone of the rest of the book or they probably wouldn't have bothered me. I may just be overly sensitive because I have gotten really, really tired of having other's beliefs crammed down my throat. Other than that, it was a lovely book and a very good read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I don't remember exactly how old I was when I last read this....but I'm going to guess I was probably around 8 or 9. So basically about 40 years ago. Yikes. What I remember most was that I thought it was a very odd book, and I'm going to say I didn't necessarily enjoy it, although looking back, I think it was more that I probably just didn't understand it. In hindsight, I suppose it was probably my first experience with science fiction, and while I don't dislike the genre now, it's not typically my first choice. Re-reading it now, it obviously made a lot more sense to me. As I read, vague memories started coming back and I gained a better appreciation this time around. I liked the way science & religion blended together (although I don't remember the religious aspect from my reading as a youngster). Considering this was written in the early 1960's, I was surprised that it didn't seem nearly as dated as I would've expected it to. I originally re-read this in order to prep myself to watch the recently released movie. However, I've since read a lot of bad reviews of that, so I may skip the movie. There's apparently an older movie adaptation and I think I'll look for that one instead.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Meg Murry’s father has been gone for almost five years, and her family lost contact with him over a year ago. Her mom keeps a brave face for the sake of the children, but Meg in particular is struggling. Her little brother Charles Wallace is a bit of a prodigy. He’s only five but speaks as eloquently and rationally as any adult. He is very clearly special and is the one who introduces the Murry family to the ladies who live in the “haunted” house nearby. These ladies—Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, and Mrs Which—send Charles Wallace, Meg and neighbor boy Calvin on a quest to find Mr Murry.This children’s book is a classic for a reason. Not only does this it feature three mysterious and powerful women, but it has a girl who is sent on a quest. So often quest stories feature boys, which makes it refreshing to read one with a girl as the main character. Meg isn’t perfect and her flaws prove both a hindrance and a help to her throughout the book. A Wrinkle in Time combines science-fiction with fantasy in the journey to different worlds to find Mr Murry. I first read this in grade school, which is perhaps the best age to read the book, but there is no wrong age to read it. This book is for everyone.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Absolutely love this book! The writing is amazing, the story is amazing. It is creative and individually brilliant.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Huh . . . Well that was that.

    I'm just not even sure what to think of this book. It was very unique - maybe too unique for my tastes. I just feel rather indifferent about it. :P
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Leaning more towards 3.5 stars than 3 flat. It's about time I've gotten to A Wrinkle in Time; I think this would have been an often reread series if I'd first discovered it when I was a kid. I've moved straight onto A Wind in the Door and will probably hold off on an actual review until I'm finished with the series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have read this book twice now. While certainly there are a number of reasons to recommend it, what stood out to me both times was the christian scripture. While this isn't necessarily a flaw, I feel like for a book so based in science, religion feels like a silly side-note. It doesn't really detract from the story itself, but it strained my suspension of disbelief a little bit much, especially the second time I read it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is another fantasy novel for older children published in the early 1960s, though unlike the Alan Garner novel I read just before this, this one contains much more of a mixture of fantasy and science fiction ideas. Meg and her brother Charles Wallace and another boy Calvin meet three mysterious "witches" who go by the delightful names of Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which. In search of Meg and Charles's father, who disappeared a year ago while supposedly carrying out top secret government work, the children are then whisked off through the eponymous medium to another planet threatened by a mysterious dark force which also threatens the Earth. However, most of the action takes place on the planet Camazotz, ruled over by a disembodied brain which enforces total uniformity on its inhabitants in the name of guaranteeing order and happiness, which is quite a stark idea, opening up readers' minds to concepts of personal freedom and the potential price that can be paid for order and happiness (or at least, as here, an absence of unhappiness or pain, which is not the same thing at all). The children's characters are quite clearly delineated and more three dimensional than many child central characters in young people's literature. The ending was rather abrupt, though I understand the author went to write a quintet of these novels.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great children's book. I loved it as well as the rest of the series. Parents should give this book as a gift to their children, absolutely.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Reading this book as an adult in 2018 must be a totally different experience from reading it as a child in 1960s, 70s or 80s. Stripped to it's very core the story stands the test of time, but everything else is dated. The characters are one trick ponies without actual personality. The adventure is set off by powerful beings that give no explanations, just enigmatic advice, which is frustrating because this is a sci-fi story for youngsters, not a Greek tragedy. And the pacing... it took half the book to get the story going, and who has time for that? I recognize the importance of this novel in the history of YA, and it's effect on later books, but to a modern reader it's nothing but a relic. It was translated to Finnish for the first time ever this year - decades too late, which is a shame. I might have loved it as a child in the 80s.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A thoroughly enjoyable adventure story where three children meet three mysterious women/spirits/angels? who carry them off through "wrinkles in time" to other worlds. At stake is the father of Meg and Charles, siblings with extraordinary talents and personalities. Their new friend Calvin joins them as they seek to free Meg and Calvin's father from the dark force that has entrapped him during his experiments with travelling through space and time. The other worlds L'Engle creates are vivid and some of them are as creepy as anything Hitchcock ever came up with. Meg is utterly believable as an adolescent girl with self-doubts and emotional failings. The audiobook version I listened to was narrated with skill and I felt whisked away to another world and just wanted to keep listening and listening and listening. I highly recommend this for anyone looking for a great adventure story to escape into.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Narrated by Hope Davis. Davis performs this classic with aplomb, distinctively presenting each character, whether the unique Mrs. Whatsit and the ladies, the gifted and mysterious Charles Wallace, and the occasionally petulant Meg. (Confession: As far as I recall, I never read this book until now, as an adult, and I did not expect Meg to be so whiny.) Not as "sciency" as I expected, but it has its moments.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I am surprised I didn't like A Wrinkle in Time more than I did, it was an interesting story and I did care about what happened to the characters enough to finish it, but the writing style was very jumpy and didn't elaborate enough on important events. As a children's book I understand why the characters were written the way they were (naive and overtly childish despite two of them being teens) and why they said and did things as such, but it was annoying at times. Maybe if I had read this book as a child I would of found it great, but as an adult I just don't feel this is a book that carries over well to adult readers and I couldn't get in the right frame of mind reading to view from a child's perspective. I just had a really hard time getting into the novel and that feeling remain until I was done with it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Re-reading the first three of these because it's been so long. This one was always my least favorite of the three and I completely understand why the movie is so contentious. It's hard to put into images the feelings and scenery of these books. I listened to the audiobook version this time and wasn't really fond of how they made Meg sound. I remember being a young teenager and I think the reader was a little too removed to remember being a teenager, and primarily remembers raising teenagers.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I completely enjoyed this one. Sad to say I did not read it at a younger age. Even though Meg annoyed me a bit with her constant mood swings, it fit the story well. I love how it wrapped up the lessons that this book teaches. Now about the other books about this family. Are they as good and worth reading? I haven't heard as much about them. 4⭐️
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm finally reading this book as an adult. A very good book for kids. Looking forward to seeing the film. this is the last book in my experiment to see if I can fully enjoy a film right after reading the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was so amazing and out of this world when I first read it as a child, and as an adult it was equally as wonderful and exciting.

Book preview

A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle

ONE

Mrs Whatsit

It was a dark and stormy night.

In her attic bedroom Margaret Murry, wrapped in an old patchwork quilt, sat on the foot of her bed and watched the trees tossing in the frenzied lashing of the wind. Behind the trees clouds scudded frantically across the sky. Every few moments the moon ripped through them, creating wraithlike shadows that raced along the ground.

The house shook.

Wrapped in her quilt, Meg shook.

She wasn’t usually afraid of weather.—It’s not just the weather, she thought.—It’s the weather on top of everything else. On top of me. On top of Meg Murry doing everything wrong.

School. School was all wrong. She’d been dropped down to the lowest section in her grade. That morning one of her teachers had said crossly, Really, Meg, I don’t understand how a child with parents as brilliant as yours are supposed to be can be such a poor student. If you don’t manage to do a little better you’ll have to stay back next year.

During lunch she’d rough-housed a little to try to make herself feel better, and one of the girls said scornfully, After all, Meg, we aren’t grammar-school kids anymore. Why do you always act like such a baby?

And on the way home from school, walking up the road with her arms full of books, one of the boys had said something about her dumb baby brother. At this she’d thrown the books on the side of the road and tackled him with every ounce of strength she had, and arrived home with her blouse torn and a big bruise under one eye.

Sandy and Dennys, her ten-year-old twin brothers, who got home from school an hour earlier than she did, were disgusted. "Let us do the fighting when it’s necessary," they told her.

—A delinquent, that’s what I am, she thought grimly.—That’s what they’ll be saying next. Not Mother. But Them. Everybody Else. I wish Father—

But it was still not possible to think about her father without the danger of tears. Only her mother could talk about him in a natural way, saying, When your father gets back—

Gets back from where? And when? Surely her mother must know what people were saying, must be aware of the smugly vicious gossip. Surely it must hurt her as it did Meg. But if it did she gave no outward sign. Nothing ruffled the serenity of her expression.

—Why can’t I hide it, too? Meg thought. Why do I always have to show everything?

The window rattled madly in the wind, and she pulled the quilt close about her. Curled up on one of her pillows a gray fluff of kitten yawned, showing its pink tongue, tucked its head under again, and went back to sleep.

Everybody was asleep. Everybody except Meg. Even Charles Wallace, the dumb baby brother, who had an uncanny way of knowing when she was awake and unhappy, and who would come, so many nights, tiptoeing up the attic stairs to her—even Charles Wallace was asleep.

How could they sleep? All day on the radio there had been hurricane warnings. How could they leave her up in the attic in the rickety brass bed, knowing that the roof might be blown right off the house, and she tossed out into the wild night sky to land who knows where?

Her shivering grew uncontrollable.

—You asked to have the attic bedroom, she told herself savagely.—Mother let you have it because you’re the oldest. It’s a privilege, not a punishment.

Not during a hurricane, it isn’t a privilege, she said aloud. She tossed the quilt down on the foot of the bed, and stood up. The kitten stretched luxuriously, and looked up at her with huge, innocent eyes.

Go back to sleep, Meg said. Just be glad you’re a kitten and not a monster like me. She looked at herself in the wardrobe mirror and made a horrible face, baring a mouthful of teeth covered with braces. Automatically she pushed her glasses into position, ran her fingers through her mouse-brown hair, so that it stood wildly on end, and let out a sigh almost as noisy as the wind.

The wide wooden floorboards were cold against her feet. Wind blew in the crevices about the window frame, in spite of the protection the storm sash was supposed to offer. She could hear wind howling in the chimneys. From all the way downstairs she could hear Fortinbras, the big black dog, starting to bark. He must be frightened, too. What was he barking at? Fortinbras never barked without reason.

Suddenly she remembered that when she had gone to the post office to pick up the mail she’d heard about a tramp who was supposed to have stolen twelve sheets from Mrs. Buncombe, the constable’s wife. They hadn’t caught him, and maybe he was heading for the Murrys’ house right now, isolated on a back road as it was; and this time maybe he’d be after more than sheets. Meg hadn’t paid much attention to the talk about the tramp at the time, because the postmistress, with a sugary smile, had asked if she’d heard from her father lately.

She left her little room and made her way through the shadows of the main attic, bumping against the ping-pong table.—Now I’ll have a bruise on my hip on top of everything else, she thought.

Next she walked into her old dolls’ house, Charles Wallace’s rocking horse, the twins’ electric trains. Why must everything happen to me? She demanded of a large teddy bear.

At the foot of the attic stairs she stood still and listened. Not a sound from Charles Wallace’s room on the right. On the left, in her parents’ room, not a rustle from her mother sleeping alone in the great double bed. She tiptoed down the hall and into the twins’ room, pushing again at her glasses as though they could help her to see better in the dark. Dennys was snoring. Sandy murmured something about baseball and subsided. The twins didn’t have any problems. They weren’t great students, but they weren’t bad ones, either. They were perfectly content with a succession of B’s and an occasional A or C. They were strong and fast runners and good at games, and when cracks were made about anybody in the Murry family, they weren’t made about Sandy and Dennys.

She left the twins’ room and went on downstairs, avoiding the creaking seventh step. Fortinbras had stopped barking. It wasn’t the tramp this time, then. Fort would go on barking if anybody was around.

—But suppose the tramp does come? Suppose he has a knife? Nobody lives near enough to hear if we screamed and screamed and screamed. Nobody’d care, anyhow.

—I’ll make myself some cocoa, she decided.—That’ll cheer me up, and if the roof blows off at least I won’t go off with it.

In the kitchen a light was already on, and Charles Wallace was sitting at the table drinking milk and eating bread and jam. He looked very small and vulnerable sitting there alone in the big old-fashioned kitchen, a blond little boy in faded blue Dr. Dentons, his feet swinging a good six inches above the floor.

Hi, he said cheerfully. I’ve been waiting for you.

From under the table where he was lying at Charles Wallace’s feet, hoping for a crumb or two, Fortinbras raised his slender dark head in greeting to Meg, and his tail thumped against the floor. Fortinbras had arrived on their doorstep, a half-grown puppy, scrawny and abandoned, one winter night. He was, Meg’s father had decided, part Llewellyn setter and part greyhound, and he had a slender, dark beauty that was all his own.

Why didn’t you come up to the attic? Meg asked her brother, speaking as though he were at least her own age. I’ve been scared stiff.

Too windy up in that attic of yours, the little boy said. I knew you’d be down. I put some milk on the stove for you. It ought to be hot by now.

How did Charles Wallace always know about her? How could he always tell? He never knew—or seemed to care—what Dennys or Sandy were thinking. It was his mother’s mind, and Meg’s, that he probed with frightening accuracy.

Was it because people were a little afraid of him that they whispered about the Murrys’ youngest child, who was rumored to be not quite bright? I’ve heard that clever people often have subnormal children, Meg had once overheard. The two boys seem to be nice, regular children, but that unattractive girl and the baby boy certainly aren’t all there.

It was true that Charles Wallace seldom spoke when anybody was around, so that many people thought he’d never learned to talk. And it was true that he hadn’t talked at all until he was almost four. Meg would turn white with fury when people looked at him and clucked, shaking their heads sadly.

Don’t worry about Charles Wallace, Meg, her father had once told her. Meg remembered it very clearly because it was shortly before he went away. "There’s nothing the matter with his mind. He just does things in his own way and in his own

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