| $@%&! level: Low “Bedroom” level: None Violence level: Low Back Cover: “A Wind in the Door is a fantastic adventure story involving Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe, the chief characters of A Wrinkle in Time. The seed from which the story grows is the rather ordinary situation of Charles Wallace's having difficulty in adapting to school. He is extremely bright, so much so that he gets punched around a lot for being “different.” He is also strangely, seriously ill (mitochondritis--the destruction of farandolae, minute creatures of the mitochondria in the blood). Determined to help Charles Wallace in school, Meg pays a visit to his principal, Mr. Jenkins, a dry, cold man with whom Meg herself has had unfortunate run-ins. The interview with Mr. Jenkins goes badly and Meg worriedly returns home to find Charles Wallace waiting for her. 'There are,' he announces, 'dragons in the twins' vegetable garden. Or there were. They've moved to the north pasture now.' Dragons? Not really, but an entity, a being stranger by far than dragons; and the encounter with this alien creature is only the first step that leads Meg, Calvin, and Mr. Jenkins out into galactic space, and then into the unimaginably small world of a mitochondrion. And at last, safely, triumphantly, home.” |
Speaking of explanations, the truth is that if you don’t care for thought-provoking ideas and new ways of thinking about the world, you probably shouldn’t be reading any of the books in this series. It gets pretty metaphysical in places. It builds deep and inherent connections between everything that exists, from the incomprehensibly small to the incomprehensibly large. The prime example of this is the tiny farandolae (which humanity can only guess at) singing symphonies with the stars light years away. Apparently size and location don’t actually matter if you look at them right. And, in fact, neither does looking. Personally, I really enjoy all the interesting ideas. I like the thought of Naming, and that the way you can tell when the world is out of balance is when (among other things) people begin to put off life in favor of fun. It might sound kind of preachy spelled out like that, but it actually blends really well into the story, and these ideas are absolutely essential to the eventual solution. Which I also quite enjoy.
I’m not quite sure I agree with the theories involved in the Murry’s parenting style, however. Even if they did feel that it was best to send Charles Wallace to school, surely they could have given him a bit more preparation for it? Some coaching on how to act mostly normal? Strategies for fitting in? I mean, he’s a smart kid--they didn’t really have to leave him to figure it all out for himself, did they? (Charles Wallace is my favorite, and I suspect I’m nearly as protective of him as Meg is.)