The supreme weirdness of reading 'A Wrinkle In Time' as an adult

The first time I read A Wrinkle In Time as a kid, I remember being utterly terrified.

Beginning with the iconic opening line "It was a dark and stormy night," Madeleine L'Engle's classic children's sci-fi tale takes us on a harrowing journey with iron-willed Meg Wallace, precocious Charles Wallace, and charming Calvin as they they bend time and space to find Meg and Charles's missing father.

It wasn't until I re-read the book as an adult that I figured out why: As a kid, I was used to stories about kids persevering and fighting the challenges to discover the moral of being themselves. I wasn't used to reading stories where the youthful protagonists face such grave mortal and existential peril.  Read more...