Madeleine L'Engle

Despite being the author of over forty books, including the Newbery-Award winning children's classic A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle spent years working as a librarian at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Her best books—the complex, fantastic Wrinkle in Time series and her more conventional but equally well-written Austin family stories—are a nicely judged mixture of philosophy and storytelling. While Ms. L'Engle frequently wrote stories with a religious bent, her books (with the possible exception of Many Waters, which I found tough going) are never preachier than they are entertaining.

Note: The Austin stories and the Wrinkle in Time books do eventually connect in some weird, roundabout way.

Note: Ms. L'Engle was married to the guy who played Dr. Charles Tyler on All My Children, if that means anything to you.

Aftertaste:
While the (Disney, naturally) television adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time was pretty damn stinky, the five minutes I forced myself to watch looked like Citizen Kane when I compare it to the (also Disney-spawned) adaptation of A Ring of Endless Light, which starred Mischa Barton, the wooden actress who spent a few years dragging down TV's otherwise enjoyable The O.C.. While the memories of watching this production are too painful for me to dredge up, apparently I looked like the guy being tortured in A Clockwork Orange.

Availability:
Everywhere

Other Recommendations:
Devil on My Back by Monica Hughes

The Dark is Rising series, by Susan Cooper

The His Dark Materials series, by Phillip Pullman

The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis

Or, for fans of her more down-to-earth young adult books,
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, by Chris Fuhrman

Born Confused, by Tanuja Desai Hidler

Anything by Chris Crutcher



Website:
http://www.madeleinelengle.com/ -