Read it in multiple dimensions, not just see it in two

One of my favorite books is a tale originally published in 1962.  Rejected by more than thirty publishers over a two year period of time, when it was finally published, A Wrinkle in Time won the Newbery Medal for children's literature.



But awards aside, it is an amazing story.  Great stories are enduring, because they are rare and beautiful acts of restoration in this world.  I have read this book more times over the decades than I can count, and each time, I carry away a new insight.

A story that resounds with the reader is not just told or read, but felt. 

As author Madeleine L'Engle herself stated in her book Walking on Water:  Reflections on Faith and Art:

"Creative involvement:  that's the basic difference between reading a book and watching TV.  In watching TV we are passive;  sponges;  we do nothing.  In reading we must become creators.  Once the child has learned to read alone and can pick up a book without illustrations, he must become a creator, imagining the setting of the story, visualizing the characters, seeing facial expressions, hearing the inflection of voices.  The author and the reader "know" each other;  they meet on the bridge of words."

Trust me.  Please read this book before the movie comes out on March 9.  And read it with your kids, so that they can enlarge their own vision, not just accept what is handed to them on the screen.

Don't let someone else's interpretation artificially flavor your own, or a producer's own singular worldview hijack the author's.  There is a strong endearing and enduring supernatural element in this story, the opening of spiritual doors, that which is not likely translated on a two-dimensional screen. 

Even the actual story recognizes those limitations:

"Explanations are not easy when they are about things for which your civilization still has not words...That is because you think of space only in three dimensions."

"But you see, Meg, just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation doesn't exist."


It has become a cliche to say, "The book is always better than the movie."

Despite all the technological special effects and acting, that truth resounds.

Read it in multiple dimensions, not just see it in two.