by: Madeline L’Engle
read by the author
Ages: 7+ (listening)
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I threw in a bunch of audiobooks on our recent trip to Michigan, hoping that we’d listen to a couple as we went. Turned out that we only listened to one, and that this was the one everyone seemed most excited for.

I really don’t have much to add with this reread from the last time. I was expecting the religion, and while I sat musing for a while that the idea of sameness as the Great Evil is a very American idea (though I liked this quote — and I paraphrase — “Alike does not mean equal.” True.), I mostly just let the story flow over me and didn’t engage with it very much.

So, I’m going to give you my girls’ reactions:

K, who is 7, spent much of the book wondering what was going on. She did get the basic content of the book, but often said, “The words don’t mean anything to me.” We had to stop frequently to explain things to her.

A, really enjoyed it. In fact, out of all of the girls, she’s the one who was the most interested in the whole story. She really liked Meg, thought Charles Wallace was charming, and may (or may not; she’s not telling) have ended up with a little crush on Calvin (though he is no Percy Jackson).

C, was the most interested in starting the book, but by the end was complaining that Meg was TOO HYSTERICAL. “Can’t she just shut up and do something already?” That is an interesting perspective: the girls in our middle grade fiction have become more confident and more assertive than they used to be. I’m not saying that Meg is a shrinking violet; just that she does burst into hysterics quite often.

M, who had read it before (“Is this the one with the huge brain?”) was charmed again (“Oh be quiet! Awkward kid flirting; it’s so amusing.”), but not really thrilled.

And Hubby kept comparing it to Harry Potter: Cal is Ron, definitely. But we debated whether Meg was Harry or Hermione. We decided that Meg was probably Harry and Charles Wallace was Hermione. Everything relates to Harry Potter these days, doesn’t it.

Oh, a bit on the narration: I loved hearing Madeline L’Engle — pronounced lengle as opposed to la engle; I didn’t know that — narrate her book. While it wasn’t as mesmerizing as Neil Gaiman’s narrations of his books are, it still was quite charming.

Not a bad way to introduce several of my kids to the series, at any rate.