Wrinkle in Time Quintet Boxed Set Book

This book first came on my radar several months ago when a woman in our church small group mention it. I was intrigued as I've found very few Christian sci-fi books. I put this on my Amazon wish list and my sister gave it to me for Christmas. Thanks Sis!

When my Facebook published the announcement that I started reading this quintet, one of my co-workers told me that he remembered having it read to his 3rd grade class. Wow! I thought that this is advanced, mind-bending stuff for 3rd grade. He also said that he was going to read it again. L'Engle truly created a remarkable work to span such an age group. If you are considering reading these stories, don't dismiss them because they are often classified as "childrens." She handles some advanced concepts (e.g. relativity, Heisenberg principle, DNA) in her storylines and had a real gift for her easy-to-understand descriptions of these esoteric concepts.

The stories themselves involve sci-fi staples such as time-travel, faster-than-light travel to galaxies, unicorns, and even shrinking down to the size of a DNA component reminiscent of Fantastic Voyage. There are also Christian themes sprinkled throughout with (usually) very subtle scripture insertions. Goodreaders usually do not put these books within the Christian shelves as the main focus of these plots emphasizes good versus evil rather than evangelism. Likewise, Christian readers should not dismiss these works because L'Engle inserts icons associated with pagans or new age such as Druids, unicorns, et al.

L'Engle does an ok job of describing the setting of the story. She tends to follow a Jane Austin paradigm of emphasizing the interaction between the characters. She is not as minimalist in her environmental renditions as Ms. Austin, however. My one-star knock is that I think that her characters spend a little too much time talking and too little time doing.

I found these very entertaining books with an astonishingly broad appeal. She covers far-reaching subjects in sufficient depth to satisfy die-hard sci-fi/fantasy consumers without leaving younger, less-educated, less sci-fi-inclined readers behind.