A Wrinkle In Time: the Graphic Novel, for Timeslip Tuesday

Hope Larson has done a magnificent job bringing Madeline L'Engle's classic story, A Wrinkle in Time, to graphic novel form (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Oct., 2012).  All the words that I remember so very, very clearly from my multiple re-readings are there--the thoughts and words of the characters that I can almost quote verbatim--and the descriptive elements are captured very nicely indeed by the straightforward, blue/black/white illustrations.   A Wrinkle in Time is certainly a story that deserves a wide audience, and it's great that it's now accessible to those who prefer to read graphic novels.  It could not be more faithful to the book--here is Meg's whole journey, from the storm that begins things, with all the little details still there, continuing on through to her rescue of her little brother from a dark, alien planet with nothing left out (at least, nothing I noticed).

This close adherence to the original is reflected in the length of the book--389 pages--so those who have young readers reluctant to tackle long books that are all words can feel comfortable that lots of actual reading will be done.  Making it even more reluctant read friendly is that just about every word is either dialogue, or Meg's thoughts--everything else is told in the pictures.  One exception I just found in leafing through was on page 19, when Meg is coming down from her attic room.  The creaking seventh step that she steps over is labeled "creaking seventh step," which tickled me very much, and which reassured me that this would be beautifully true to the original!  And the other exception is the opening-- "It was a dark and stormy night," which I would have been sad to have seen cut!
  

Despite the sound of the story, it does not, to me, have the taste of science fiction.  It feels more like a quest fantasy, with the three chosen children heading out into danger, with powerful guardians helping them as much as possible, but ultimately sending them on alone to meet the Dark Power.   The fact that the adventure takes place on alien planets, and that the mechanism for travel between them is "scientific" (because scientists are doing it) isn't enough to counterbalance the magical force of the three guardians, and the utterly unscientific gifts, located deep within the characters themselves, that make the story happen.

Likewise, several people over the years have suggested A Wrinkle in Time as one to include on my list of Time Slip books, but I've been reluctant to do so.  For me, this isn't most truly a time travel book (it's space travel).  But reading it again, I found a little snippet of conversation that I hadn't ever focused on before.  "We made a nice little time tesser," [says Mrs Whatsit], "and unless something goes terribly wrong we'll have you back about five minutes before you left.  Nobody will know you were gone at all" (page 147).  Which I guess is the titular wrinkle, and it's enough to convince me to give it a slot on my list!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher.