A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'Engle

This classic young adult science fantasy has won multiple awards, including the 1962 Newbery Medal from the American Library Association. It has been voted the best children's book after Charlotte's Web.

Twelve-year-old Meg lives with her scientist mother, her identical twin brothers, and younger brother Charles Wallace. She doesn't fit in at school, where kids make fun of her for being different and Meg's father, who has gone missing. A physicist, he was working on a top-secret government job when he disappeared. Her mother always remains calm, but Meg, with her wild hair, braces, and glasses, can't hide her feelings. She hates being an oddball.

Only five, Charles Wallace is wise beyond his years - worldly, prophetic, and telepathic. With a plan to find their father, they venture into the woods behind their house where they meet teenage friend Calvin, who felt compelled to find them that night. In an abandoned house, they meet three unusual beings - Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Who. Billions of years old, they speak of a powerful 'tesseract' which wrinkles time itself, and through a tangible darkness, they take the kids into the fifth dimension. On the planet Uriel, the Mrs.'s shift into large horse-like creatures with marvelous rainbow wings, in Orion's belt they meet the Happy Medium for advice, and discover the evil power of the Black Thing extinguishing light across the universe. It is coming to Earth, as it has come to the planet Camazotz, where they find everyone beholden to the IT, a giant brain at the center of the Central Intelligence building. Everybody is the same, and being different earns punishment. On this planet, their father has been held captive in a glass column, and it will take all they have to rescue him.

They journey through space and time, battle the darkness with light, and discover energy and matter are the same. It is a classic tale I wish I enjoyed more. I found it too scientific for young readers (never talking down to them) but too juvenile for adults, unlike Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series, which is timeless for all ages. There is a strong Christian overtone reflecting L'Engle's religious faith, which limits the universality of the story.

Declined by 26 publishers before being published in 1962, there are four sequels with the Murry family. It was filmed in 2003, and in 2018 starring producer Oprah Winfrey.

1962 / Paperback / 256 pages