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Question: What was your favorite book at the age of 9 1/2 or 13 3/4? Whichever you remember best.

My Answer:

I remember when I was around 9 1/2, my absolute favorite book was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. I borrowed it from the library and read it twice in a row. I talked about it for months. Still, I didn't realize, and I suppose no one knew to tell me, that it was part of the Time Quartet, which I didn't read till years later. And I didn't own a copy of A Wrinkle in Time until last summer when I helped teach it in a Modern Fantasy class for fourth and fifth graders. My favorite parts include the first encounter with Mrs. Whatsit "There is such a thing as a tesseract", Mrs. Who's explanation of a tesseract, like two points on a line being suddenly pulled next to each other, and especially the Happy Medium. I went to see the play last year and just as Meg figured out how to get into her father's cell, the fire alarm went off. It fit in so well, nobody moved until the actors walked offstage!

Comments

Anonymous said…
I never read A Wrinkle in Time! My favorite book at that age was Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume. I think that's where I was first introduced to WWII and was the beginning of my fascination with novels delving into that period. (Reading The Book Thief many years later turned it into an obsession, LOL)
I love Judy Blume, but I never read that one. At that age, I'd read The one in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo, later I read Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret, and much later I read Forever.
I was about that age when I read A Wrinkle in Time too and it definitely stands as one of my all-time favorites. There's a play? Must. See.

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