Mark Stein teaches third- and fourth-graders in South Burlington, Vt., at a great little parent-cooperative school called The Schoolhouse, which both of my nephews have attended. Mark’s class just finished reading A Wrinkle in Time, and the kids were debating which genre—science fiction or fantasy—best fits the book. When they reached an impasse, Mark suggested calling The Flying Pig.
“I told the kids we would call a local independent bookstore because, in addition to keeping our money in Vermont when we shop there, we can be certain of reaching people who are passionate about books.” You have to love a teacher who instills in nine- and ten-year-olds an appreciation for the value of community and the deep love of books.
After the kids decided what questions they wanted to ask a bookseller, Mark put the classroom phone on speaker and called the bookstore. There was no call ahead, no set-up, just the real-time, real-world experience of calling a store for information. This is a great experience for kids, by the way; there is, as you may imagine, a huge range of competencies when it comes to children phoning commercial establishments — but that’s another blog post.
When one of our staffers answered the call, the children asked her where we choose to shelve Madeleine L’Engle’s novel. She replied that we shelve the series in our middle grade Fantasy/Science Fiction section (we combine the genres for middle-grade books, but we give adult and YA science fiction a separate section). She added that we also carry A Wrinkle in Time in our Newbery Award section, and that sometimes, the series can even be found in our younger Classics section, especially when we have the boxed set on hand. That gave the class a lot to chew on, both broadening the number of book categories and not settling the initial question with finality.
The kids had one more question for us: Did we have the next book in the series? Mark said, “The kids are so excited about A Wrinkle in Time. And now they’re excited about being part of the process of getting hold of the next book. It’s a powerful thing,” he added, ruminating, “to be part of the acquisition of a book.” I’d never really thought about it that way, but I understand what he means — and I really admire that he’s deepened the way the kids are thinking about where and how they decide to add a new treasure to the classroom library.
A Wrinkle in Time has been one of my favourite books since I first read it decades ago. I’m so happy to hear it is being read in a school, and that the teacher turned the lessons into more than just a book discussion. I hope you see a whole slew of new customers coming for the 2nd book in the series! (& that they keep on coming!)
This is great news, Josie!
Wonderful, wonderful book. I would put it in science fiction; they tesseract to other planets and visit alien cultures and mind-bending alternate realities. There are “witches” and magic glasses involved, but the “magic” seems more like an advanced technology to me. It’s the bending of space.
I loved reading this post. It’s inspiring!
This is extra fitting, since this year is the 50th anniversary of A Wrinkle in Time’s publication! The next book, A Wind in the Door, is also awesome, though my personal favorite is A Swiftly Tilting Planet.
Great lesson by the teacher. As a school librarian, I get these kind of questions all the time! It’s too bad those kids don’t have access to a school librarian. Good thing they have an independent book store nearby. Wonder if they have a public librarian who could have offerred some insight too?
I am a middle school teacher. I have my books shelved by genre. I have done most of the work finding out where to shelve it. I have colored labels on each book telling the student what genre it is. When I get in a large amount of books I have students who come in early or stay late help me. They get out computers and check the local library and several other sources. It is important to have these conversations with our students.
It’s a shame that they didn’t call up their local library instead. Then a librarian could have told them that it’s actually in the mixed genre “science fantasy.” As L’Engle herself wrote in ‘The Rock That is Higher: Story as Truth,’ “Writing ‘A Wrinkle in Time’…was my first effort in a genre now called ‘science fantasy’, and science fantasy is not far from fairy tale, that world which delves deep into the human psyche, struggling to find out at least a little more of what we are all about.”
A Wrinkle in Time has been one of my favorite books since my 5th grade teacher read it to me over thirty years ago. I’m thrilled (and not surprised) that the book is still inspiring a love of books.