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A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Yearling Books) (Paperback)
by Madeleine L'Engle
Category:
Science fiction, Award-winning books, Ages 9-12, Children's books |
Market price: ¥ 88.00
MSL price:
¥ 78.00
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MSL rating:
Good for Gifts
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MSL Pointer Review:
L'Engle's another great science fiction which combines the threats of nuclear war in today's society with the more complicated science of time travel delivering a message of a balance between things. |
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Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Publisher: Yearling
Pub. in: December, 1980
ISBN: 0312368569
Pages: 304
Measurements: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BC00293
Other information: Reissue edition
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- Awards & Credential -
A winner of American Book Award |
- MSL Picks -
This book is a challenging book to read but also full of many adventures and mysteries. A Swiftly Tilting Plant has a lot of surprise for you to keep on reading. L'Engle explores many time-travel ideas in this 70's novel, showing that she owns at least part of that market. Throughout A Swiftly Tilting Planet, we see how the actions of even one person can have effect on the future. The "back to the future" idea is well paced and thought out.
Fifteen-year-old Charles Wallace Murry, whom readers first met in A Wrinkle in Time, has a little task he must accomplish. In 24 hours, a mad dictator will destroy the universe by declaring nuclear war-unless Charles Wallace can go back in time to change one of the many Might-Have-Beens in history. In an intricately layered and suspenseful journey through time, this extraordinary young man psychically enters four different people from other eras. As he perceives through their eyes "what might have been," he begins to comprehend the cosmic significance and consequences of every living creature's actions. As he witnesses first-hand the transformation of civilization from peaceful to warring times, his very existence is threatened, but the alternative is far worse. The Murry family, also appearing in A Wind in the Door and Many Waters, acts as a carrier of Madeleine L'Engle's unique message about human responsibility for the world. Themes of good versus evil, time and space travel, and the invincibility of the human spirit predominate. Even while she entertains, L'Engle kindles the intellect, inspiring young people to ask questions of the world, and learn by challenging.
Target readers:
Kids aged 9-12
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Madeleine L'Engle is the author of more than forty-five books for all ages, among them the beloved A Wrinkle in Time, awarded the Newbery Medal; A Ring of Endless Light, a Newbery Honor Book; A Swiftly Tilting Planet, winner of the American Book Award; and the Austin family series of which Troubling a Star is the fifth book. L'Engle was named the 1998 recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards award, honoring her lifetime contribution in writing for teens. Ms. L'Engle was born in 1918 in New York City, late in her parents' lives, an only child growing up in an adult world. Her father was a journalist who had been a foreign correspondent, and although he suffered from mustard gas poisoning in World War I, his work still took him abroad a great deal. Her mother was a musician; the house was filled with her parents' friends: artists, writers, and musicians. "Their lives were very full and they didn't really have time for a child," she says. "So I turned to writing to amuse myself." When she was 12, Ms. L'Engle moved with her family to the French Alps in search of purer air for her father's lungs. She was sent to an English boarding school -"dreadful," she says. When she was 14, her family returned to America and she went to boarding school once again, Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina-which she loved. When she was 17, her father died. Ms. L'Engle spent the next four years at Smith College. After graduating cum laude, she and an assortment of friends moved to an apartment in Greenwich Village. "I still wanted to be a writer; I always wanted to be a writer, but I had to pay the bills, so I went to work in the theater," she says.
Touring as an actress seems to have been a catalyst for her. She wrote her first book, The Small Rain, while touring with Eva Le Gallienne in Uncle Harry. She met Hugh Franklin, to whom she was married until his death in 1986, while they were rehearsing The Cherry Orchard, and they were married on tour during a run of The Joyous Season, starring Ethel Barrymore. Ms. L'Engle retired from the stage after her marriage, and the Franklins moved to northwest Connecticut and opened a general store. "The surrounding area was real dairy farmland then, and very rural. Some of the children had never seen books when they began their first year of school," she remembers. The Franklins raised three children -Josephine, Maria, and Bion. Ms. L'Engle's first book in the Austin quintet, Meet the Austins, an ALA Notable Children's Book, has strong parallels with her life in the country. But she says, "I identify with Vicky rather than with Mrs. Austin, since I share all of Vicky's insecurities, enthusiasms, and times of sadness and growth." When, after a decade in Connecticut, the family returned to New York, Ms. L'Engle rejoiced. "In some ways, I was back in the real world." Mr. Franklin resumed acting, and became well known as Dr. Charles Tyler in the television series All My Children. Two-Part Invention is Ms. L'Engle's touching and critically acclaimed story of their long and loving marriage. The Time quintet-A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time-are among her most famous books, but it took years to get a publisher to accept A Wrinkle in Time. "Every major publisher turned it down. No one knew what to do with it," she says. When Farrar, Straus & Giroux finally accepted the manuscript, she insisted that they publish it as a children's book. It was the beginning of their children's list." Today, Ms. L'Engle lives in New York City and Connecticut, writing at home and at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where she is variously the librarian and the writer-in-residence. "It depends from day-to-day on what they want to call me. I do keep the library collection-largely theology, philosophy, a lot of good reference books-open on a volunteer basis."
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Meg Murry O'Keefe and her family are just sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner when her father gets a phone call from the White House about a madman's threat of nuclear war. Only an old Irish rune seems to hold a clue to averting worldwide disaster, and when Meg's brother Charles Wallace, now fifteen, recites it, a radiant white beast-the unicorn Gaudior-appears to join him on his quest. But there are only twenty-four hours in which to stop tragedy from occurring. Can Charles Wallace, with the help of Gaudior and Meg, possibly succeed?
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View all 13 comments |
A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
A Swiftly Tilting Planet has been one of my two favorite children's books, alongside Old Yeller, ever since I read it as a kid. Rereading it the other night prior to the broadcast of the A Wrinkle in Time TV movie, I had the same epiphany I've read about other people having when they reread The Lord of the Rings as adults: I didn't remember how sad this book is. Yes, I remembered the Chuck storyline clearly, and I knew it was sad as a kid, but I wasn't prepared for how much more powerful I would find it as an adult. I was actually crying when the grandmother asked that the children wait to use the rune until "the time is ripe". Like in "Casablanca", the problems of a family being destroyed by the bad things in life don't amount to a hill of beans compared to nuclear war... I can't imagine an intelligent child who likes time travel stories not falling in love with this book, which will always have a cherished place in my heart. |
A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle combines the threats of nuclear war in today's society with the more complicated science of time travel. Mad Dog Branzillo, a South American Dictator, frightens the whole world with possibilities of dropping a nuclear bomb on America. It is up to Charles Wallace, a 15-year-old genius, his sister, Meg, and a mysterious rune to save the world from destruction. Charles' mission is to travel back in time with a unicorn named Gaudior to alter the past. In order to do this incredibly difficult and dangerous task, he must venture inside of people's souls to live with them and change the course of their lives so that Mad Dog Branzillo will not be born as a nemesis. Guided by this almighty rune, calling on all heaven with its power, and kything, or sending messages through the mind, with Meg, he fights to triumph over evil and to seek peace. his book delighted me because of the great mystery of the time travel. I would recommend this book to anyone else who enjoys time travel and good fiction. I would not suggest this book to a person who does not enjoy fantasy or other books of the sort. A Swiftly Tilting Planet is fun to read and I would suggest that everybody read it and the others in the series. |
A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
I can't really remember when I first read Madeleine L'Engle. It must have been before I was 12. But she is one of my favorite authors, and this book is my favorite of hers! Each time I read it I feel like I get more out of it. I can't wait to get back home and read this book again. This book is complex. I would recommend it to anyone who is of the opinion they can think, regardless of age. Yes, it is disturbing at times. But that's no reason to prevent a child from reading it, for life is disturbing at times. What's important here is that good triumphs over evil in the end, due to choices people make, and due to a higher power. And I don't think there is anything wrong with being pregnant! Meg is probably thinking of writing her thesis or something at the time; it is kind of besides the point of the story. Also fascinating are the historical references to an apparently European genetically influenced tribe in America long before Columbus. It makes me wonder, and I also wonder where L'Engle came up with the rune. Really, I can't say enough, just read this book! |
A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
These series from L'Engle are amazing and I couldn't get enough of it. Especially this book. It has so much adventure and mysteries that it seems like you're involved with the story. It's full of surprises that it will keep you reading on and on for hours. The characters are wonderful and unpredictable. You'll never know what's going to happen next and you always learn something new from them. It's a good book but I don't think the character's personality should have changed so much though... Meg who was once an adventurous girl is now a housewife. But that's reality right? That is why the book is great, it has a little mix of reality and imagination and you could picture everything from what you read in the book. I would totally recommend this book to anyone around any age group. You'll enjoy it. |
View all 13 comments |
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