This Newberry Meddle–winning book is an imaginative story of intergalactic travel. Meg and her brother Charles Wallace, along with their friend Calvin, follow three strange ladies, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, through a "tesserect," a wrinkle in time, which allows them to travel a great distance in no time at all. They eventually get to a very strange planet, where there is no individuality. All of the kids bounce their balls to the same rhythm, all of the moms call their kids in for supper at precisely the same instant, and the paper boy throws the paper on a perfect trajectory every time. But far from a perfect world, this world is under the influence of the great shadow, and has been given over almost totally to its power. On this world, Meg and Chrales Wallace discover that their father is imprisoned here, after stumbling onto a tesserect in his research. This strange world is ruled by a great brain, which makes all of the decisions for everyone. The kids find themselves drawn to its power, and struggle to not be drawn in by it. Chrales Wallace is almost totally taken over by it, and only by taking a tesserect are Mr. Murray, Calvin, and Meg able to escape. After recuperating on another planet, Meg, the only one who will be able to resist its power, goes back alone to rescue her brother, and is able to resist the force of this evil will and reclaim her brother, through love, the one thing that this evil brain doesn't have and cant counteract.
This is a good story, both for children and adults. It causes us to take pause and look at our world. What does it mean to have a will? And what forces are vying for our allegiance? It is science fiction in the vane of C. S. Lewis's space trilogy, and uses other worlds to take an insightful look at our own.
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