by Tara Shafer posted in Parenting

Few books mean more to so many than A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle. Published in 1962, this genre-defying book that celebrates the power of difference and the courage and empowerment of children set a new standard for young adult fiction. A Wrinkle in Time is the story of apparently ordinary children who journey through space and dimensions to defeat evil using humanity, science, and the power of love as their weapons.
Now L'Engle's granddaughters, Lena Roy and Charlotte Jones Voiklis, have written a memoir about their grandmother for middle grade readers: Becoming Madeleine. Roy explains that she and her sister were fascinated by their grandmother and loved hearing stories of her own growing up. L'Engle was born in New York City in 1918 to accomplished and artistic parents. She attended boarding school in Switzerland, which proved to be a melancholy experience that taught her to write about difficulties in growing up. After several years, she returned to the United States, graduated from high school, and attended Smith College. After her graduation from Smith she took to the New York City stage as an actor on Broadway where she worked as an understudy and in small parts. She also began to publish the first of her stories during this time.
Also, during this time she met Hugh Franklin, an actor, who she subsequently married. In 1947, the couple had their first child and moved to Connecticut to raise their family in a more &quo...