This is one of those books that I never read and just took everyone's word that it is a great book. Well, I am actually mad that I did not read it sooner. I honestly feel like this book could really make some kids think differently about reading in general because this book is part of a quintet w...
For those looking for a TLDR version of my review, I can sum up this book in one word:Pulp.If allowed, I might also add:Meh.If A Wrinkle in Time were not lauded as a classic, and were instead given the far more accurate description of Christian pulp fantasy, I wouldn't have an issue with the book...
When sixteen-year-old Polly O'Keefe journeys to Athens, she feels confused and betrayed. The past eight months at home were different from any other time in her life. She met the brilliant, wealthy Maximiliana Horne, who gave her encouragement and made her feel self-confident. Polly idolized Max,...
My first ever oral book report was on A Swiftly Tilting Planet. I chose it because I had so much enjoyed the book. And, hey, it had a flying unicorn. I got an A on the written report; I didn't do so well on the oral presentation. I never let that happen again, though. It was what you call "a lear...
Yes, there will be spoilers, but, seriously, it doesn't matter, because you don't want to read this book.All right. So this book deals with Sandy and Dennys, who have been little better than side characters in the other books. They are Meg and Charles Wallace's "normal" brothers. Twins. It also t...
I never read this one when I was a kid, so I was coming at it completely fresh. And, at first, I thought it was making a difference in my reception of the book, because, at first, I was really enjoying it. The first third of the book was really good. I was impressed and everything.Yes, there will...
This packs an unexpected punch. I had written this book off as belonging to the "not-so-great" category that some of L'Engle's lesser-known books for teens sadly fall into, but despite the difficulty I had getting into the story initially, in the end it surprised me. After spending weeks dipping ...
Imagine for just a moment that you're the parent of a teenage girl, a very smart teenage girl who is not getting the kind of education she needs at her high school. You decide to send your daughter off to spend some time studying with your parents who happen to be genius scientists. Now... Imagin...
Originally reviewed here @ AngievilleSo. I am a longtime Madeleine L'Engle devotee. It started back when I was 10 with A Wrinkle in Time and it has stretched out over the years into a lifelong love affair. One of the more treasured and personal ones in my life. And while I love all her worlds, th...
I reread this after reading it over 15 years ago as a first-year student in college. In fact, I reread the same copy and had a nice little dialogue with my naive-yet-earnest 17-year-old self who desperately wanted to understand faith, writing and the creative process, and who underlined far more ...
A reviewer at the Saturday Review compared Camilla to The Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfield and Camilla Dickinson, the protagonists in question, are a bit like Romeo and Juliet: he gets some terrific lines and flails around memorably, but she's the one who grows and matures and doesn't have an...
I love L'Engle, she's one of my favorite writers. And most of her novels are quite good. So when I rate this one three stars, really it is in relation to her other works, not that it is actually a mere average book. It simply isn't as good as her other ones.Dragons in the Waters introduces us to ...
At last! A beloved book from my childhood that seems as wondrous to me now as it did then. I've been re-reading a lot of books by my girlhood favorite Madeleine L'Engle recently, and I'm afraid that most of them have disappointed me, sometimes sorely. But not this one. It is just as warm and glow...
I remember reading A Wrinkle in Time when I was young, and loving it so much. I recall watching the movie, and it taking a special place in my heart, as well. So when I saw this book (though its cover first appealed to me), I was really eager to read it. This book was completely different from th...
L'Engle's books always seem to have such poetic names. Troubling a Star, isn't that fantastic? Unfortunately the book wasn't quite as wondrous as the book title, but it was still pretty good. After all, L'Engle is a terrific writer.Vickie (from the Austins series of which this is book 5) is still...
I try to read several Christmas books each yuletide season and this one appealed to me since it was a book about the joys of the Christmas season from the perspective of the children in the Austin family.The Austin family celebrate the Christmas season by doing one special thing each night of Adv...
He wondered if Adnarel knew about the coming flood and the destruction of almost all life on earth. His arms tightened about Higgaion, with whom he slept much as, when he was a small boy, he had slept with his arms around a small brown plush triceratops. His fingers moved through Higgaion’s shagg...
Kairos: God’s time, real time. Jesus took John and James and Peter up the mountain in ordinary, daily chronos; during the glory of the Transfiguration they were dwelling in kairos. — Chronology, as we know it, began with Creation. Time exists only where there is mass in motion. A certain amount o...
“Do I dare disturb the universe?” asks T. S. Eliot’s J. Alfred Prufrock. It’s not an easy question, and there are no easy answers. Robert Cormier, in his cautionary tale The Chocolate War, has his young hero ask J. Alfred’s question, and because this is not a novel of realism, as many people th...
Elizabeth and Ben sat out in the kitchen with Mrs. Browden, eating chicken livers on toast. John Peter came in while they were eating, and one side of his face was swollen from his toothache. Mrs. Browden clucked over him anxiously. “I’m full of aspirin,” John Peter said, “and it might just as we...