Today School Library Journal released a gorgeous full-color pdf version of Betsy Bird’s Top 100 Children’s Novels Poll. I’m terribly proud that my name appears for my help tallying the numbers and also in some quotes about the books. This seemed like a good reason to post another of the Top 100 Authors.
#4 Children’s Novelist: Madeleine L’Engle, 317 points, 45 votes
Now, this isn’t a big surprise, since Madeleine L’Engle’s book, A Wrinkle in Time, was the #2 Children’s Novel, with 307 points.
I admit I was a bit surprised that the one other book which was mentioned was Many Waters, with a first place vote for 10 points, and the words, “My favorite of hers…I think I loved the way she embellished a story I already knew (Noah and the ark), particularly including female characters that don’t show up in the Biblical narrative except as sidenotes.” — Libby Gorman
Now, my personal favorite Madeleine L’Engle book is probably A Ring of Endless Light, but that wasn’t mentioned at all. I find I haven’t reread too many of her books since I started writing Sonderbooks, but there’s a lovely range of titles. I will have to remedy that. It turns out that I have read and reviewed a lot of her nonfiction for adults. So just for fun, I’ll post links to those here.
Here’s Betsy’s post about A Wrinkle in Time.
Here’s my most recent review of the audio version, read by the author herself.
Here’s my 2001 review of A Wrinkle in Time, posted in my third issue of Sonderbooks when it was still an e-mail newsletter.
And here are her other books I’ve reviewed:
The Joys of Love
Walking on Water
A Circle of Quiet
The Summer of the Great-grandmother
The Irrational Season
Glimpses of Grace
Madeleine L’Engle, Herself
It’s definitely high time I reread some of her others.