I first read this book when I was in the fourth grade and it's one of the few books that I have a memory of reading as a child. I only vaguely remembered parts of the book but very much remember the art on the cover--I hate that in grade school you don't get to keep the books--it had a winged centaur-like creature with kids on its back and black swirly galaxies. It's 200 pages and actually has some words I'd be surprised if I knew at 9 (omnipotent is the one I can call to mind at the moment) and ideas like the periodic table of elements, times tables (which I never actually learned . . . . they were the bane of my existence in third (?) grade), some mention of physics, other basic science stuff. It's also kind of scary with the main bad guy being a disembodied brain that can control your thoughts making you an automaton but that also creates a smog-like black cloud around the planets it controls.
Oh, right, brief plot summary for those who haven't read it since the 4th grade, or ever: The Murray family is made up of two genius scientists for parents, an oldest daughter, Meg, who is a bit of an angry misfit, twin boys, Sandy and Dennys (I didn't mistype), who are as normal as normal can be, and the youngest boy, Charles Wallace, who is special in a can read your mind and knows lots of big words way. So the father was working on a project for the government, essentially a sort of time travel amongst the planets and he goes missing. Meg, Charles Wallace, and their new friend, equally misfit (although superficially normal basketball player) Calvin must go and save him with the help of three "witches" (Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which) who can take the form of humans (well, two of them can) but aren't human at all. The father is somehow kept away from home by IT (the brain which causes pollution) and they have to figure out how to save him and fight IT.
It's kind of amazing that I even read it in elementary school (as an assigned text) given that it was very frequently banned (in the top 25 of most frequently banned of the 90s. I would have read it just a bit before the 90s . . . .). It has references to witches, talking beasts, some sort of version of Stalinism/Marxism/Communism that I couldn't quite sort out (it's very Animal Farm--don't be like the herd because that's mindless), and a shaky Jesus allegory (all you need is love) along with some straightforward references to God.
I do think the book is well written and I was entertained enough for a quick read. I was incredibly annoyed with Meg's (brief) turn in character toward the end of the book (which also seemed to precipitate a change in the Mrs.Ws' characters) but she seemed to get back on track (as did the Mrs Ws). The little love affair between Calvin and Meg was cute but it sort of dropped off and that was disappointing (although according to the family tree at the back of the book, they get married and have 7 (!!) children). The "science" to explain the time/space travel was a bit foggy but I just skipped right over that. The plot line is good for girls in that Meg has to be the one to get some things done and she accomplishes this by virtue of her "faults" but I'm not so sure about the method of the final save, it's a little wishy washy.
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