A Wrinkle in Time

I remember my mom and dad giving me the book A Wrinkle in Time as one of my Christmas gifts one year (probably to encourage me to read something other than Nancy Drew books! ha ha),  I was not at all impressed by the cover or description, as I wasn't and still am not a science fiction-y fan.  The cover looked like this on my book back then:

Does that say $1.25? For a new book?  Wow!

I don't know if it was a boring summer day, or what, that caused me, months later, to pick up the book and start reading.  Those first words, "It was a dark and stormy night . . ." hooked me in immediately, and I lived, during the hours it took me to read the story, in an imaginary world I could never describe better than Madeleine L'engle did when she penned the book.  It was utterly fascinating and entertaining and a part of my childhood that I'll never forget.

I proceeded to re-read the book several times throughout my childhood.  It didn't begin a love of science fiction (or whatever genre that would be).  But I did love that particular story ever so much.

Fast forward to the summer of 2012.  I have a 10-year-old son who has signed up once again for the summer reading program at the library.   He earns prizes based on the number of pages read.  It can also be books that are read to him, as long as they are checked out from our library.

We still enjoy reading together.  Obviously, I don't read him many, if any, picture books these days, but I read aloud from chapter books, especially those that I think will bring about interesting discussion.

He asked me to read A Wrinkle in Time to him.  What?!  Um, yeah!  Of course I'll read that to you, my dear! :)  He had found this treasure as we looked together through some old books of mine--the few that I can't bear to give away.  We had to check a different copy of the book out from the library for it to count on his summer reading record, so that's what we did.  It looks like this:

Oh, how I enjoyed taking this journey again, this time with my Little Mister.  Those rows of identical houses on the planet Camazotz (isn't that a curious name for a planet? :)), and the children bouncing their basketballs and jump roping in time, and Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which . . . well, it's just a brilliant story!

Little Mister loved it, too.  "Please, please, PLEASE read more, Mom!" said he, every time it was time to stop reading.  "You're leaving me on a cliff!"  It's all very dramatic, don't you know. ;)

Though I was still intrigued by the story, I did pick up on aspects of it that never occurred to me as a child--aspects that warranted breaks from reading to talk about them with Little Mister.

Reading with our kids is a great way to start conversations and see what's going on inside their heads, how they've matured, and maybe some ways they still need to grow in their thinking.

It's also a great excuse to sit next to each other on a summer afternoon  . . .

 . . . and sometimes a sit will morph into a snuggle!

But, a-hem, you didn't hear that from THIS mom of a 10-year-old boy!  ;)

Anyway, we enjoyed reading that book together.

Yesterday, we watched the movie on Netflix Instant Watch.

I have this thing about LM reading the book before watching the movie.  Whatever the story.  It doesn't work that way every time, but it's something we try to put into practice a majority of the time.

The book is always better than the movie.  Why is that?  I guess a movie is simply not capable of portraying all the details, the thoughts, the emotions of the written word.

Little Mister said he liked the movie even better. lol  I probably would have thought a movie was better than a book at his age, too.

I think he'll change his mind some day. ;)