revisiting camazotz

My fifth grade teacher read "A Wrinkle in Time" aloud. I loved this book and read it over and over again. Now, I’m reading it aloud to Camille. It’s a little bit of  a slow start for her, but I love the cozy east-coast life the writer settles us into before we take off for the Andromeda galaxy. Today is Madeleine L’Engle’s birthday. From the writer’s almanac:

Madeleine L’Engle was born in New York City (1918). She struggled to find any success as a writer with novels about ordinary families and ordinary situations, but after reading about the ideas of Albert Einstein, she wrote a science fiction novel called A Wrinkle in Time (1962), about a group of children who have to rescue their father from a planet where individuality has been outlawed. The book was rejected by 26 different publishers, who all felt that the book was too difficult for children but too fantastic for adults. But when it came out in 1962, the novel won the Newbery Medal, and it sells about 15,000 copies a year. L’Engle put a clause in her publishing contract that gave her publisher the rights to A Wrinkle in Time in perpetuity in the whole universe except for the Andromeda galaxy. She died this year.

Madeleine L’Engle said, "You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children."

My copy had a much scarier cover. I like this one by Peter Sis much better, but it has its detractors. What was your favorite book in the 5th grade?