"A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle - Done

I have started this book a dozen times in my life and could never get into it. Then my wife and daughter read it and I wanted to know what they were talking about.

It operates on several different levels, one of the most fun of which is the application of quantum physics to a children’s story. I found myself at the kitchen table talking with an eight-year-old about folding space to travel through time and how we would appear in flatland.

My youngest daughter gravitated to the story as well. Every time she saw the book, she pointed to the cover and said, “That’s a Merehorse.”

By far my favorite aspect of the story is that it is a thoroughly Christian allegory in which love is more powerful than power, in which self-sacrifice prevails over coercion, and where pride goes before the fall. The image of a uniform society is a great depiction of what hell must be like.

The book has given and will continue to give me a rich source of examples to teach my children about some of the realities we face in this life, one of which (just like in Meg’s case) is the flawed and mortal nature of their daddy.