BANNED BOOKS WEEK 2008 runs from September 27 through October 4. Next Friday, Patti Abbott's "Forgotten Books" column/blog will discuss banned books. I got ahead of myself and posted this a week early.

This week - take a banned book to lunch.

The imagination has long been under attack by religious conservatives. Apparently, even reading about dragons and non-Christian beliefs can be a threat to the far right way of life. I was raised in a liberal Northern Jewish household where my mom, who worked at the public library, brought home tons of books so I don’t get what’s harmful about this stuff. We always read, listened to music, went to shows (from local rep to “theater in the round” to rare trips to Manhattan) It’s not like I ever decided to become a witch because I read a book about one. And so what if I did? Okay, I suspect preaching to the choir has limited attraction so I’ll move on. (Just one more question – who the HELL objects to Captain UNDERPANTS??? Oh I know it’s probably anti-authority). (jeeeeezus) (oops)

Okay one more – raise your hands if you think FAHRENHEIT 451’s presence on the list on a regular basis is the ultimate irony? Yeah, thought so. Okay. All hands down.

When Madeleine L’Engle died a little more than a year ago. I mourned her as I have mourned the loss of few other authors. Her books have been a staple in my life, as child, adolescent, teen and adult. Her fantastic fantasy, her books about divorce, and her adult novels about love and sacrifice all mattered to me a lot. So I’m here to talk about A WRINKLE IN TIME which might not be forgotten. I apologize in advance for talking about the book without my copy in front of me – it’s hiding out after a recent bout of “oh let’s neaten up, I’ll remember where I put it”. For the record, I own a boxed set of the trilogy, bought many years back. They have cover art by Leo and Diane Dillon.

I’m gonna punt a little here but I did reread A WRINKLE IN TIME relatively recently (okay, it’s been a while), because there was a televised version of the novel. I gritted my teeth at the news, because well, sigh, I’d lived through a couple renditions of fantasy novels written by Ursula K Le Guin with the most recent being a mess unworthy of the Earthsea novels. But the film aired in 2004 version of this book was, well, it met MY standards. That happened in large part because the lead character, Meg Murry, was portrayed wonderfully by Katie Stuart. The casting was flawless. They didn’t cute her up, make her Hermione. I was scared that with the popularity of Harry Potter, the ideas and imagery that L’Engle created would be overshadowed or lost. (According to Wikipedia, L’Engle did not like the film.

The book was hugely important to me as a kid because it addresses so many issues. It offered a tough concept in science with a simple clear explanation – that “wrinkle in time” . But what I truly valued was that Meg is a smart girl. She lives in a smart family. Her twin brothers are sort of regular kids (and smart), but young Charles Wallace is not. The book has some terrifying scenes, some warmly ridiculous characters (and thank you for “the Happy Medium” I mean come on!) and one fabulously smart, tough, brave, caring, scared, loving girl.

I didn’t like Nancy Drew (I thought she was dated, quaint and early on, I realized the cliff-hanger elements and thought the books were not well-written. I read a few f the Dana girls books but given how similar they were, I don’t remember a thing. I do recall liking Trixie Belden. She was more true-to-life (I got one from the library recently and it all came back. The kid with the single mom who lives in the trailer but has a better life than the protected rich girl.)

And I never encountered sf as a kid, so I had a hard time discovering girl protagonists. Meg Murry seemed so right (as did Camilla later on, the kid whose parents were divorcing). I so appreciated Meg, and when L’Engle set it up so that the very popular boy, Calvin, who played football and all that “popular kid” stuff, really liked Meg, I was so pleased. Not that I wanted to be popular and hang out with the football/cheerleader kids. I just liked that he liked her because he liked her. As a kid, I saw those divisions but I don’t think they were as sharp as they are today. I mean yeah, we were the “nerds”, the good grade, honor society students but the lines seem far more sharply drawn when I read about today’s schools. Calvin was lost in his big family, and he was more than a jock.

I learned some science in A WRINKLE IN TIME. The mom in the book raises her children and conducts science experiments in her lab at their house. She’s what Meg wants to be but she’s still pretty intimidating. The ultimate message is pretty obvious – love can conquer – but what it conquers in this book is conformity, indifference, prejudice, blandness.

There is religious “content” . I don’t remember seeing it as a kid (but then I was apparently unaware of the religious symbolism that infuses THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE by C S Lewis – and that’s apparently really obvious. Sigh.)

L’Engle dared to open A WRINKLE IN TIME with “It was a dark and stormy night”. She gave us three unforgettable witches/immortal beings/otherworldly women, Mrs. Which, Who and Whatsit. She argues against conformity during the heart of the Cold War. The book was published in 1962 after it got 26 publisher rejections.

This book won the Newbery Medal – the highest form of award for children’s literature – as well as several other awards. L’Engle was writer-in-residence for years at the Cathedral of st. John the Unfinished (I mean the Divine) And although it comes out of a religious foundation (L’Engle was Episcopalian and many of her books express her Christianity, she still is considered a bad influence for some of her beliefs and for how she saw the world.)

I met Madelien L’Engle once. Years after becoming a fan, after meeting dozens of authors, many of whom were my friends, I was at a convention and was asked to escort her from point A to point B. She was with her husband, actor Hugh Franklin. And despite knowing giants in the field, I was flop-sweat, fangirl nervous. She was one of my heroes and her books are amazing

A WRINKLE IN TIME shows up regularly on lists of books that should be banned/challenged. It’s #22 on the ALA’s “100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000.

Read it with heart. Read it with pride.

A WRINKLE IN TIME shows up regularly on lists of books that are considered "dangerous" and that should be challeneged or banned.