A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L'Engle (1962)
“Rejected by 26 publishers, this science-fiction fable about a misfit girl who saves the universe by loving her father became one of the most banned books in American classrooms.”
Why This Book Matters
A Wrinkle in Time was rejected 26 times before publication and went on to win the 1963 Newbery Medal, becoming one of the bestselling children's novels in American history with over 14 million copies sold. It is regularly cited as the book that opened science fiction and fantasy to young female readers and protagonists, and the first major children's novel to insist that science and spirituality are not only compatible but require each other.
Firsts & Innovations
One of the first major science fiction novels for children with a female protagonist who is allowed to be angry, flawed, and unredeemed into pleasantness
One of the first children's novels to use actual mathematical concepts (higher dimensions, hypercubes, quantum physics) as plot mechanics
One of the first children's novels to be challenged for being simultaneously too religious (for including Jesus) and too anti-Christian (for placing Jesus alongside secular figures like Einstein and Gandhi)
Cultural Impact
Won the 1963 Newbery Medal — the highest American honor for children's literature
Among the most frequently banned and challenged books in American libraries — cited for occultism, New Age content, undermining religious values, and depicting crystal balls
Spawned four sequel novels in the Time Quintet series
2018 Disney film directed by Ava DuVernay grossed $132 million worldwide
Taught in middle school English classes across the United States for sixty years
The periodic table scene is consistently cited by adult readers as the childhood reading moment that stayed with them longest
Banned & Challenged
Consistently among the American Library Association's most challenged books. Banned for: witchcraft and occult themes (the Mrs W's), explicit Christian content (the Jesus reference), New Age philosophy, anti-family content (Mrs Murry is a scientist who wears nice clothes — apparently threatening), and general 'undermining of religious values.' The irony that the book is simultaneously challenged for being too Christian and for being anti-Christian is one of the great demonstrations that the banning impulse is frequently less about content than about discomfort with complexity.