Things That Are Normal: Sixth grader, Miranda, lives on the Upper West Side with her single parent mom, a paralegal. She and Mom's boyfriend, Richard, AKA Mr. Perfect, are helping Mom practice for her appearance in three weeks (on April 27, 1979) on the TV game show "The $20,000 Pyramid," hosted by Dick Clark. Miranda's favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time, which she reads over and over. There's a crazy old guy who hangs out on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue, yelling, laughing, doing sudden kicks, and sleeping with his head under the mailbox. Back in October, her best friend, Sal, got punched in the gut by another boy on the way home from school. Since then, he hasn't wanted to be best friends, so she's been palling around with other kids.
Things That Are Not Normal: Miranda is telling this story of everything that happened to her this past year to an unidentified and mysterious someone who has sent her notes that have correctly predicted some of those events, including the date her Mom will be appearing on that TV show, before anyone could have known about them. One note reads, "I am coming to save the life of your friend and my own." Miranda ponders a central point in A Wrinkle in Time: is time travel possible?
Reviewed by JF.
THEMES: FRIENDSHIP. HISTORICAL FICTION. SCIENCE FICTION.
Things That Are Normal: Sixth grader, Miranda, lives on the Upper West Side with her single parent mom, a paralegal. She and Mom's boyfriend, Richard, AKA Mr. Perfect, are helping Mom practice for her appearance in three weeks (on April 27, 1979) on the TV game show "The $20,000 Pyramid," hosted by Dick Clark. Miranda's favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time, which she reads over and over. There's a crazy old guy who hangs out on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue, yelling, laughing, doing sudden kicks, and sleeping with his head under the mailbox. Back in October, her best friend, Sal, got punched in the gut by another boy on the way home from school. Since then, he hasn't wanted to be best friends, so she's been palling around with other kids.
Things That Are Not Normal: Miranda is telling this story of everything that happened to her this past year to an unidentified and mysterious someone who has sent her notes that have correctly predicted some of those events, including the date her Mom will be appearing on that TV show, before anyone could have known about them. One note reads, "I am coming to save the life of your friend and my own." Miranda ponders a central point in A Wrinkle in Time: is time travel possible?
Teacher tip: In one of the many threads of the book, Miranda helps her mother practice for her upcoming appearance on "The $20,000 Pyramid." You might want to play the speed round with your listeners, having them pair up to guess seven common words you put on index cards, with one giving the clues and the other coming up with the words. If you read the book aloud, one thing all will want to do when you finish is speculate on what life will be like in the future, say 2050. They can try to answer these pertinent questions: What's the burn scale? Where's the dome?
Reviewed by JF.
THEMES: FRIENDSHIP. HISTORICAL FICTION. SCIENCE FICTION.
