I finally read A Wrinkle in Time after I saw the movie a couple of weeks ago. Confession time: I couldn’t finish it in middle school and was highly disillusioned about it, I don’t think I would have picked this book up again if it weren’t for the masterfully done movie adaptation starring Storm Reid, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindi Kaling. That being said, I know exactly why I didn’t like this book at 12, I lack the patience I do now (not that I’m super patient) and I was being made to read it by a teacher and sometimes I bucked authority. Even now Madeline L’Engle’s writing style doesn’t work the best for me; that being said, I appreciated this book for what it does with a female main character and science fiction, and even more so I appreciate the movie for how it accomplishes the same things as the book with a phenomenal set of diverse characters. After having watched the book and read the movie I want to chat about the adaptation and my thoughts about the changes that were and weren’t made and the effects of the adaptation! THAT BEING SAID: SPOILERS WILL ABOUND IN THIS POST SO PROCEED WITH CAUTION
Tag: Classics
What is a Classic?
Considering the goal to provide context (historical, biographical, critical, and supporting) to “classic and contemporary children’s and young adult literature,” what exactly is a classic? There are three types of classics that I’m likely going to be talking about: Classics, Modern Classics, and Future Classics.
Wild Things
Bruce Handy, contributing editor for Vanity Fair, provides a “ramble through classic children’s literature” in Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult.
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Caroline Fraser’s new biography Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder seeks to provide not only the tale of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life but also to provide the context of the historical periods in which Laura lived.
Kurt Vonnegut & Sherman Alexie
Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel Slaughterhouse Five and Sherman Alexie’s 2007 novel Flight both feature violent scenarios, and time travel narratives. As Alexie explains in a 2007 NPR Interview, reading Slaughterhouse Five helped him form the shape of Flight. Similarly, scholars have broken down the function of time travel narratives in each of these novels. Because of the correlation that exists between the two novels, they can be read, and taught, in tandem.