A Wrinkle In Time 50th Anniversary edition is a gem. As an adult reader (and full disclosure: an author of my own young adult novel: LIE], I have fallen in love with the story of Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin again. One of my resolutions 02 2012 (does anyone really keep these??) was to read or re-read some classics.  Friends sent me ideas:  Sylvia Plath, Nabokov, Shakespeare, and to start, I chose this magical childhood favorite celebrating it's 50th year in print. 

 

First, I must say that this new hardcover edition is worth buying -- it's physically beautiful, with a luscious red and gold updated cover, and additional material including essays by noted children's writer Katherine Paterson and L'Engle's granddaughter, as well as to the delight of this writer -- a copy of a work-in-progress manuscript of the opening chapter.  This piece is complete with L'Engle's notations. Lastly, I was inspired by the inclusion of her Newbery Medal acceptance speech.  Every aspiring writer must read this speech, ‘The Expanding Universe’ from 1963 and this book!

 

If you are an adult reader, be prepared to be transported by the language (quotes by greats Pascal, Aristotle, and more, which I'm sure I glossed over at 10 or 11 years old, are so terrific now).  I’ve fallen in love again with Charles Wallace and his love of words, his obsession with the meaning of them.  Most of all,  I’ve fallen again for the story of the search for a father -- and for meaning in this far-reaching universe.  I plan to re-read again with my 11- year-old and 6-year-old, but first I wanted to savor it all by myself!   

 

A Wrinkle in Time expanded my horizons as a young child and has done so again.  As L’Engle says in her medal acceptance speech, “A book, too, can be a star, ‘explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly,’ a living fire to lighten the darkness leading out into the expanding universe.”

 

Yesterday, a major story in the Wall Street Journalabout, not money, not stocks or bonds, not jobs, about --  Young Adult Literature  -- "Darkness Too Visible: Contemporary fictions for teens is rife with abuse, violence, depravity.  Why is this considered a good idea?"  by Meghan Cox Gordan.

Listen up, I loved reading Judy Blume and S.E. Hinton too.  I even loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (all of these she recommends).   I re-read The Outsiders recently -- and for the most part -- it still reads really well, the characters are deeply developed. I still wanted to make everything for Pony, in the same way I did when I was 12 or 13 (okay, what does that say about me?).  But maybe a deeper look at the raw realism of today (yes, okay, LIE) is called for?   Where was Laurie Anderson in this article?  The raw New York City based novels of Paul Volponi (who in full disclosure gave LIE a great blurb, though I have never met him), or of Walter Dean Meyers?  She calls Hunger Games 'hyper violent.'  Hey, it's a strong female fighting the capriciousness dictatorial society, but then recommends Fahrenheit 451. I'm not sure of the difference in theme, except one has been deemed a 'classic,' by time and literary critics.  She goes on to tout other classics, or even books such as Ophelia by Lisa Kline (in full disclosure I haven't read, but is now on my reading list) based on Shakespeare Hamlet.   

And one more thing that seems so fussy,( and so mistaken about YA lit in general) this Wall Street Journal writer breaks the books into 'books for young men' and' books for young women,' and what was great about S.E. Hinton is that boy or girl, you could read The Outsiders.   Boy or girl you could read To Kill a Mockingbird.

So yes, darkness NEEDS to be visible.  I am hoping that today's audience, boys and girls, young and old,  still want to know more about the world, the true, heart-felt, devastating real world.    

Just read Joseph Riippi's (yes, two 'i's to start) book  -- The Orange Suitcase: Stories -- this a fairly slim volume of short pieces, set pieces really, prose poems almost.  The voice of a 20-something writer searching for meaning of life from his dysfunctional family (do writers have any other kind?) to searching for meaning in New York City to musings --a little bit Bukowski and Carver, about love-- about friends and beer, is deeply felt through these pieces. The life of a young writer in the 21st century is illuminated through a sharp, funny, sometimes poignant even, voice.

Full disclosure:  Riippi's also at City College, where I just graduated, but I never met him before he handed me his book at a local writing festival (I did give him $20 bucks for it along with another book of short stories that he contributed to -- such is the life of a would be writer, always pay it forward, invest in books!). 

Over the weekend, I read a YA book that is staying with me -- MILES FROM ORDINARY by CAROL LYNCH WILLIAMS.  It's about a girl, Lacey, taking care of her mentally ill mother in a small town in Florida.  The girl is a strong character, she believes she can do it alone (how many of us women believe that?), but when her mother disappears from the first day at her new job as a supermarket cashier, Lacey realizes that she can't do it alone -- though in some ways she must.  All of the action takes place over one day, though there are compelling flashbacks that fill in her story.  The last "act" is somewhat rushed; we want to stay with Lacey, or at least, I did.  I cried at the end, maybe that's the best thing to say.  I cried and the book, it's fluid, often poetic writing, it's true voice and startling end, stayed with me. 

This author also wrote another terrific novel -- THE CHOSEN ONE -- about a Morman girl in a polygomous family; this was also a great read.   Full disclosure:  Carol Lynch Williams gave LIE a terrific blurb.  Though I don't know her personally, I will always appreciate her generosity.  At end of the day, don't you love it when you find authors to love?