A Swiftly Tilting Planet - Madeleine L'Engle

A teenager saves the world from destruction.

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Common Sense rates it
4
Read the book?
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Book details
  • Author:Madeleine L'Engle
  • # of pages: 240
  • Publisher:Yearling Books
  • Original Publication Date: 01/01/1978
  • Genre: Fiction - Mystery
  • Paperback: $6.50
  • Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 9-12
  • Read Aloud: 9-10
  • Read Alone: 10+

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that this book offers a fascinating range of characters and concepts, though some readers might find the shifting storylines confusing. Spanning prehistoric times to the present, the story is a virtual trip through the history of the Americas as well as a complex family saga. The text blends multiple points of view, imagery, and poetry, and touches on violence in a non-direct way by injecting the threat of nuclear war into the story line.

Families can talk about how this story connects to other books in the Chronos Quartet series. Which of these characters have appeared in the author's other books? In what ways have they changed or grown since we first met them? Families can also discuss the broader concept of "Might-Have-Beens." Is there any might-have-been moment in your own life that you'd like to go back and change?

Message

Social Behavior:

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Violence

The threat of a nuclear war that could wipe out the entire galaxy looms.

Sex

Language

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Matt

On Thanksgiving Day, recently married Meg Murry O'Keefe is visiting her family when her father receives a call from the president. A power-hungry South American dictator called "Mad Dog" Branzillo is threatening nuclear war. The news prompts Meg's strange mother-in-law, who shares Branzillo's ancestry, to recite an ancient family rune that causes strange weather disturbances.

It's up to Meg's fifteen-year-old brother, Charles Wallace, to use the rune as he journeys through time, searching for the "Might Have Beens" that led to this crisis. With a unicorn named Gaudior as his guide, Charles Wallace travels in and out of five of Branzillo's ancestors, from prehistoric time tothe 1860s, encountering tensions between two feuding brothers in each generation.

Helped by Meg, who wordlessly links her thoughts with his through kything, Charles Wallace changes the pattern of history and saves the world from destruction.

Is it any good?

4

Each of Madeleine L'Engle's four Chronos Quartet novels has a distinct identity. This one is as much a sprawling family saga as it is a fantasy, and it has the least to do with the Murry family. Though Charles Wallace has some run-ins with the evil Echthroi, and his interactions with the unicorn are vivid and magical, the fantasy scenes are mainly frames for the story of the Maddox family curse.

The saga is well crafted, with some scenes, such as the rescue of a woman in Puritan times from being hanged for witchcraft, that are truly exciting. The plot does demand close attention, though. For instance, every generation Charles Wallace visits has a blue-eyed descendant of the Native American woman Zyll, and one twelve-year-old reader couldn't keep all the variations on her name (Zylle, Zillah, Zillie) straight.

L'Engle offers plenty of clues about the interlocking generations that are fun to piece together. In fact, some characters arrive very late at conclusions the reader will have reached early on. ("Duh!" said the twelve-year-old at one point, heaping scorn on Mrs. Murry's two PhDs.) Patient readers will be rewarded with a well-sustained story line and a spine-tingling ending.

Readers who haven't already experienced A Wrinkle in Time, L'Engle's Newbery winner and the first book in the series, will certainly want to find it. The third book in the series is Many Waters.

Other time-travel novels about changing the past are Here and Then, by George Ella Lyon, and Susan Cooper's King of Shadows.

From the Book:

Gaudior's hoof pawed the lush green of the young grass. "If you are to accomplish what you have been asked to accomplish, you will have to travel in and out."

"In and out of time?"

"Time, yes. And people. ... You have been called to find a Might-Have-Been, and in order to do this, you will be sent Within."

Other choices

Other Books in this Series:
A Wind in the Door
A Wrinkle in Time
Many Waters
Books With Similar Themes:
Here and Then
King of Shadows

Parents and kids say

All Reviews

There are 5 reviews.

4


Posted on 07/03/08 by avidcritc Kid contributor, age 14

great book. a bit confusing

this is a really, really good book. it is a bit- okay, very- confusing, but people who have read a wrinkle in time will enjoy learning more about calvin's mother, a freaky, abusive woman with no teeth and tangled hair. i've noticed that some kids have rated the book OFF. i think they meant they didn't like it and didn't notice that the signals are for how appropriate the book is. don't be fooled. it's totally clean.
5


Posted on 11/18/07 by celebi70 Kid contributor, age 10
5


Posted on 10/16/06 by angelaangieang Kid contributor, age 13

i love this book! instead of reading the series in order, i read this one first. im glad i did. although its a littlle confusing because it jumps around a lot, i LOVE it! its my fav in the series
5


Posted on 04/12/06 by go1234567890 Kid contributor, age 12
0


Posted on 11/12/05 by blueeyedbabe11092 Kid contributor, age 13

NEVER AGAIN!

The book was very hard to follow. It really need to stick with the few main characters instead of adding new ones every five seconds. I got nothing out of the book and hated every confussing second.

Adult Reviews

There are 0 reviews.

There are no adult reviews.

Kids Reviews

There are 5 reviews.

4


Posted on 07/03/08 by avidcritc Kid contributor, age 14

great book. a bit confusing

this is a really, really good book. it is a bit- okay, very- confusing, but people who have read a wrinkle in time will enjoy learning more about calvin's mother, a freaky, abusive woman with no teeth and tangled hair. i've noticed that some kids have rated the book OFF. i think they meant they didn't like it and didn't notice that the signals are for how appropriate the book is. don't be fooled. it's totally clean.
5


Posted on 11/18/07 by celebi70 Kid contributor, age 10
5


Posted on 10/16/06 by angelaangieang Kid contributor, age 13

i love this book! instead of reading the series in order, i read this one first. im glad i did. although its a littlle confusing because it jumps around a lot, i LOVE it! its my fav in the series
5


Posted on 04/12/06 by go1234567890 Kid contributor, age 12
0


Posted on 11/12/05 by blueeyedbabe11092 Kid contributor, age 13

NEVER AGAIN!

The book was very hard to follow. It really need to stick with the few main characters instead of adding new ones every five seconds. I got nothing out of the book and hated every confussing second.
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