Entries by Charlotte Jones Voiklis
Guest blog post: Sharing Madeleine, sharing cosmos
“This question of the meaning of being, and dying and being, is behind the telling of stories around tribal fires at night; behind the drawing of animals on the walls of caves; the singing of melodies of love in spring, and of the death of green in autumn. It is part of the deepest longing […]
Children’s Book Week: Is it Good Enough for Children?
My youngest daughter and I read a picture book by Madeleine L’Engle the other night. We hadn’t shared The Other Dog before, so we sat smooshed in an armchair with it, each of us holding a cover. And we laughed: it’s a good book. The dog, Touché, L’Engle Franklin, is upset over a “new dog” […]
TROUBLING A STAR, an ode for Earth Day
Dear Ones, This year for Earth Day, I went to Antarctica from my living room chair. Madeleine L’Engle brought me there, through the novel Troubling a Star. The book, the final in the Austin Family Chronicles, opens with a teenaged, terrified Vicky clinging to an iceberg in the ocean. Before we read about any rescue operation (or […]
Black holes, Einstein, and the gift of questions
My mind went to Madeleine L’Engle last week when I saw the first picture of a black hole. Science, astronomy, physics, quantum mechanics — all those things caught her imagination. In And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings, Madeleine writes about how she and her husband (Hugh Franklin) would gaze at the stars, “seeing out […]
A WRINKLE IN TIME tessers audiences at local stages
Meg saved the world again last week in East Lansing, Michigan. Michigan State University’s theater department transformed an intimate stage into Camazotz for the occasion, bringing to campus a stage adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time. This was a book-lover’s show: a tribute to the story and its truth, not a high-tech reproduction of detail-by-detail […]
Teachers, a new guide for BECOMING MADELEINE is out!
Dear Ones, A new teachers’ guide is out, inspiring deeper conversations around the book Becoming Madeleine: A Biography of the Author of A Wrinkle in Time by her Granddaughters. The unit is perfect for encouraging students to think critically about artists, their work, and childhood influences. The book lends itself to reflecting on Madeleine L’Engle […]
New A WRINKLE IN TIME resource for teachers
Dear Ones, We’re happy to share that a new A Wrinkle in Time teacher resource has arrived! Get your copy of the free resource here, compliments of Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group. A Wrinkle in Time, the winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal and many young readers’ first encounter […]
New audiobooks released for MEET THE AUSTINS, A RING OF ENDLESS LIGHT, others in Austins series
Dear Ones, Audiobook lovers, rejoice! New audio editions of Madeleine’s Austin Family Chronicles series are out in the world, through Penguin Random House Audio. These make a great listen for middle-grade or YA readers (or any of us who wished we were Austins). The five books in the Austin Family series follow Vicky Austin as […]
Hear Madeleine read A WRINKLE IN TIME, A WIND IN THE DOOR, and A SWIFTLY TILTING PLANET
Dear Ones, Listening to Madeleine L’Engle read A Wrinkle in Time is nothing short of captivating. Hear for yourself: It was a dark and stormy night, she begins, with not an ounce of sentimentality. Hooking the listener with her passionate cadence in this opening scene, the audio narration continues: In her attic bedroom Margaret Murry, […]