Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Newbery Medal Winning Masterpieces Double Feature Review

A Wrinkle in Time

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A 1962 Newbery Award Winner

This is the story of how Meg, Calvin and Wallace went into whether dimensions take them via three witches with three W's - Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which and Mrs. What. The mission is to find the dad who was a governmental scientist, lost after working on the tesseract. Do you know what the tesseract means?

In geometry, the tesseract is the four-dimensional analog of the cube; the tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square. Just as the surface of the cube consists of 6 square faces, the hypersurface of the tesseract consists of 8 cubical cells. The tesseract is one of the six convex regular 4-polytopes.

The tesseract is also called an 8-cell, C8, (regular) octachoron, octahedroid,[1] cubic prism, and tetracube (although this last term can also mean a polycube made of four cubes). It is the four-dimensional hypercube, or 4-cube as a part of the dimensional family of hypercubes or "measure polytopes".[2]

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word tesseract was coined and first used in 1888 by Charles Howard Hinton in his book A New Era of Thought, from the Greek τέσσερεις ακτίνες (téssereis aktines or "four rays"), referring to the four lines from each vertex to other vertices.[3] In this publication, as well as some of Hinton's later work, the word was occasionally spelled "tessaract".

That's in mathematical terms, but how in literature format? The tesseract also known as Project Tesseract in my language, is a fifth dimension through wrinkling time. It's called space warp when it comes to this book.

I think it's very interesting when I was still a fan of Contact by Carl Sagan and other sci-fi stuff, so I'm a sci-fi geek on the inward out in case you don't know me. I did fantasy and sci-fi combined on my own purpose to know that imagination is for funsies and it can mean realsies when deviantART comes into being for you to give yours a try. My subscribers are so small that I did subscribed to several people - the one who made My Inner Life a webcomic adaptation from fanfiction (Imaginary-Alchemist), the one I felt free to request ideas (Sanna2011) and the one that automatically got into me (PvtKitty). Thank you, my friends! It means a lot to me when posting stuff on the web.

Now back to the review, the fight of good against evil as the battle between light and dark reminds me how did I have to write something. Well, it's a recurring one I am writing it down as inspiration from the top two stuff I had explored through the years and recently from Christmas break of the past year. Thank middle school for assigning this! I first read it when I was twelve, it's for school. The two rereadings is when I was fourteen and recently, at age eighteen and going on super senior year. This made me picture science and fantasy, as if it came from my autistic brain. I think I'll dream on in order to keep moving forward through life ahead of now, because I'm such a better writer three times the magic L'Engle had for me to make myself love to learn, no matter how old are you. Five? Eight? Twelve? Fourteen? Eighteen? It's for all ages... trust me, if you have not read the book already, please do so, for I would love to when you comment your experience with this.

Did you know that A Wrinkle in Time was the first in the Time Quintet Saga? There's going to be several sequels available now at your local library or in bookstores.

This novel is on the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of the 90s, coming in at #23. The reasons why this book was challenged and/or banned is that it has references to witches and crystal balls, the claim that challenges religious beliefs and the listing of Jesus with great artists, philosophers, scientists and religious leaders. Shocking, isn't it? I'm not surprised. This is not anti-Christian, nor is it secular. It's pure imagination! Feed your brain with banned books right now! If you don't know banned books, research for more surprises.

Bridge to Terabithia

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A 1977 Newbery Award Winner

This is the one I've read the first time back in middle school, so I wonder if this book has to compare with the movie. While reading and rereading it, I found out that I am not sure. The movie from Disney is okay, but let's take a closer look at this book.

It's about two lonely children named Jesse Aarons and Leslie Burke who create a magical forest kingdom called Terabithia. Leslie is a tomboy and Jesse was artistic. They're both in fifth grade. At first, he was fearful, scared, angry and frustrated. When he first met her, his life had been changed. He has to let go of frustration.

I know why I have to let go of what my problems did occurred when it comes to my disability, because I can handle the feelings. However, here's the important rule of the day: men have to be logical, reasonable and rational, whereas women tend to be emotional (like me).

WARNING: Spoilers ahead! Duh!

This book is so tragic in the end, but it's not that. I mean, Leslie had died a terrible death in a creek after the rope broke, in which somebody said it was the stupidest way to kill off a character. I know I checked it on Goodreads recently. Do you know what it means? It means it can teach children how to deal with death, especially friends who perished untimely and by accident. It was inspired by the author's son, whose friend Lisa Christina Hill died after being struck by lightning in Bethany Beach, Delaware. She was 8 years old at the time, it was on August 14, 1974 when it happened. There is a tree dedicated to her in a memorial outside Takoma Park Elementary School in grades Pre-K to 2nd grade. Sligo Creek and Terabinthia from Dawn Treader had soon followed after to be inspired into this book.

But wait... there's more! Jesse made a bridge to Terabithia and made his little sister May Belle as the new queen.

End Spoiler

In the 90s, the ALA Most Frequently Challenged Books has listed as #8. In the 2000s, it went down twenty to #28 on the list. Censors try to purge from death as being part of the plot; Jesse's frequent use of the word "lord" outside of prayer; allegations of witchcraft; and language. To count the crush part between Miss Edmunds and Jesse, it was considered sexually explicit (which is not over the top, but still it's just the way relationships mature a bit by the time you're nine). Still shocking? I was not surprised also.

There you have it. That's the double feature. I hope that you enjoyed this review, so thank you and have an awesome day.

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