By Madeleine L’engle
Read in 9th grade
Meg Murry is not a normal 14-year-old girl. Ever since her father disappeared on the pretense of work, she has been a troublesome, unwilling girl at school. None of the children like her, and adults believe she is foolish for believing her father is alive. She has three brothers. The twins are normal, but Charles Wallace, just a baby, is different. He is super smart, and can somehow sense things others can’t. One day, he takes Meg up the hill to the haunted house, where three eccentric old ladies live. They speak of a tesseract, and they know where Meg’s father is. They “tesser” through the universe to a planet just outside of a certain “Black thing” that their father is fighting. There, the three women’s identities are revealed. Mrs.Whatsit, Who, and Which are stars who died trying to stop the Black thing. They also explain that tessering is like wrinkling the fabric of space to bring one closer to their destination. With that, Charles, Meg, and a friend named Collin are dropped off on Camazotz. It is an odd planet, where everyone is in perfect sync, and are punished for stepping out of line. They head into the headquarters, the CENTRAL central intelligence, not knowing the danger lying ahead. An old man with red eyes greets them and tries to hypnotize them like everyone else on the planet. Charles Wallace sees this and tries to avoid the man, but his own pride betrays him. The man dares Charles to look inside his head, and IT captures him. He takes them to see their father, who is on the verge of being controlled by IT, when Meg manages to save him. Because of this, they are all taken to IT. IT is a massive brain whose pulses take everyone into ITs rhythm. Fortunately, Meg’s father is able to tesser them all away - except Charles. Meg is hysterical, and Mrs.Whatsit takes her back to try to save Charles. She tells her to use the one thing IT doesn’t have. Meg cannot figure out what it could possibly be, only that she loves Charles - and that’s it. That’s what IT doesn’t have. Love. The concept of it breaks ITs hold on Charles, and the whole family finally returns to Earth.
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