A Wrinkle In Time

I had forgotten how much I loved this book.  I picked it up at school and started reading it.  It starts out with that classic "it was a dark and stormy night" and is soon full speed ahead with strange beings and inter-dimensional travel and time folding.  Only in this book it is called tessering.  The main characters are Meg Murray, a 14 year old who feels completely lost in the world.  She is hostile, uncooperative, and confrontational.  Especially when it comes to her father.  Mr. Murray has been away from his family for quite some time.  He is a scientist working on a top secret project.  Mrs. Murray is also a scientist and is Meg's touchstone along with her youngest brother Charles Wallace.  They have two twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys who are 10 but they don't figure too much in this story.  Charles Wallace is 5 and everyone outside the family thinks he is a mentally deficient child.  What they do not know is that Charles Wallace is amazingly gifted.  He can read minds or tell what someone is thinking and his intelligence is off the charts, as are his brothers and sister.  The final person in the story is Calvin, a boy from school who "happens" to meet up with Meg and Charles Wallace while they are on a walk.  He and Meg are attracted instantly and romance blooms.  Finally there are the three "others" who turn out to be angels sent to take Meg, Calvin and Charles Wallace on a dangerous journey to rescue Mr. Murray.  They fold time and end up on some remarkable planets.  They are told that a great darkness is shadowing Earth and that other planets have been taken over by it.  While tessering, Meg is most greatly affected when the have to pass through dark patches.  Once they reach the world where Mr. Murray is being held, Charles Wallace is taken over by the hive mind in his attempt to free his father.  Meg ultimately frees Mr. Murray and through a succession of events, goes back to the planet to rescue Charles Wallace.  Their angels suck them back through dimensions and they end up back in the family garden.  The only way Meg was able to free Charles Wallace was to hold on to and remind him strongly that she truly loved him.  In the end, good prevailed and the family is reunited with the addition of Calvin.
Great book for 3rd grade up. Very religious overtones but not preachy.
[book:A Wrinkle in Time|18131]