/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.8475879]

"A Wrinkle In Time" is way more challenging than I expected. I'm surprised at how often I see this recommended as a children's novel, when it seems like a surprisingly challenging read. I've read Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and the Phantom Tollbooth all in my adult life and totally understood why they're good for kids - easy to understand, casual fantasy elements, not too abstract concepts, etc.

But I'm reading A Wrinkle in Time now and there's a lot of challenging material in it. The fantasy is more abstract and isn't cut and dry "We live in a knowable world, but here's a crazy hidden world with x, y, and z creatures introduced one chapter at a time." Instead, the very first fantasy chapter plunges you into a strange environment, where you get on a flying creature, pick flowers that help you breathe, watch your guides change shape and voice, and shifts the environment several times.

Additionally, the vocabulary is way above those other novels. The quotes in different languages are the obvious example, but even their english translations seem conceptually very challenging for kids. Even without those, here's a regular sentence:

"If you have some liniment I'll put it on my dignity," Mrs Whats it said, still supine.

I teach 7th and 8th grade and I guarantee my students don't know three words in that sentence in that context.

I initially saw the book recommended as a 5th grade reading level and thought "Oh, this will be a nice novel for my 7th graders to ease into the year with." 70 pages in and I'm wondering if my 8th graders can even handle it. I was going to do Hatchet with them, but am definitely considering it the easier read of the two and going to give it to 7th instead.

Anyone else feel this way? For those who read it when you were younger - did you get it?

[Anonymous No.8475945]

>>8475879
I tried to read it in the sixth grade, I remember it being pretty boring. Should I come back to it?

[Anonymous No.8476288]

I read it in fifth grade and I remember only the flowers and flying creatures. That was about, oh, 21 years ago.

[Anonymous No.8476539]

>>8475879
Are you this guy?
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/515y9w/a_wrinkle_in_time_is_way_more_challenging_than_i/

[Anonymous No.8476558]

>the villain is a giant fucking brain in a glass jar that is only called "It'

Shit gave me nightmaares

[Anonymous No.8476576]

>>8475879

This book is fucking good. The sequels were kinda mediocre iirc

Haven't read since I was 9, still looking for my copy

[Anonymous No.8476587]

Fuck, OP, this book being recommended for kids is what made me think I was a bad reader. I was in 4th grade when I tried to read it and until then I thought I was a good reader with a good vocabulary. I finished the book, but there were lots of parts where I had no idea what the fuck was going on.

I even remember a day where us 4th graders were supposed to read our book to a kindergartner to give them a taste of what 'big kid' books were like. The entire time I'm reading it, the kid was just laying back, staring off into space, probably bored out of his mind.

>>8476558

Wasn't it the kids' dad or some shit, too? I distinctly recall a scene where one kid is being rude to their dad and he tells them to have some respect

[Anonymous No.8476636]

>>8475879
a wind in the door is better desu

[Anonymous No.8476649]

i read this in fourth or fifth grade and loved it. i remember the protags could communicate with their psychic powers, and some ladies were stars and shit and could like burn out and shit... also there were unicorns in some celestial world?

it was lit