AN ACCEPTABLE TIME

The fifth and final entry in L'Engle's WRINKLE IN TIME series gets a quiet reading from Ann Marie Lee. But this meshes well with the story’s almost-scientific tone. Teen Polly O'Keefe is visiting her Nobel Prize-winning grandmother in Connecticut when she stumbles through a "tesseract" (wrinkle in time) and ends up 3,000 years in the past. Lee reads with sincerity and brings a sense of authority to the book’s complex ideas. The Wrinkle series began in 1962 with a Newbery Award winner, but this last entry, written in 1989, doesn't rise to the same level. Despite numerous warnings, Polly seems unconcerned about being used as a blood sacrifice. The O'Keefes and Murrys are a couple of time-traveling families, so it's hard to believe Polly is such a babe in the woods. M.M.C. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2009]