I found Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time to be a novel that is both ideal and unsuitable for children. The sophisticated language and references to relevant cultural phenomena is not capable of being understood by a child. However in contrast, perhaps the reason I do not think it is the best choice for a children's novel was my inability to fully understand and visualize the events taking place. This is where the mind of a child may have the advantage. Children's imaginations have yet to be tainted by maturity and therefore, are much more likely to believe and further formulate the imagery of A Wrinkle In Time. This fundamental innocence possessed by a child is what separates them from the rest of society. It is a difficult and rare task to find a novel that has been successfully designed to specifically to cater to the minds of the youth while simultaneously confusing the ignorant minds of the adult. Despite my dissatisfaction with a Wrinkle In Time, I will admit that Madeleine L'Engle has mastered this technique.
The use of scientific research to support the peculiar actions of the main characters put a sense of realism into the novel. I enjoyed the L'Engle's ability to take the implausible and link it with the discovered in an attempt to merge the two ideas into some kind of skeptically believable realm. Society today is very situated around the use of scientific facts and the incapability to believe anything with out proof. A Wrinkle In Tine was able to take advantage of society's weakness to willingly believe science. By taking scientific findings and applying them to illusory acts, the reader is confronted with a paradox of what to believe. Trust science as we have for many years or listen to reason and remember how impossible such things may be? This notion of persuading adult reader's to believe in the unknown is what allows A Wrinkle In Time to be a novel that can be read not only by youth but universally by all ages.
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