A+Swiftly+Tilting+Planet

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’engle

Reviewed by Shirley Wong

The novel, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeleine L’Engle is a series followed by A Wrinkle in time. The novel is based on Charles Wallace who is fifteen years old and his sister, Meg trying to solve the mystery identity of a mad dictator. He goes through a tough journey with a unicorn, Gaudior. They need to succeed in order to stop the nuclear war from approaching on Earth, but they have a limited amount of time of only twenty four hours. The scenes are magical and relates to fantasy.

It relates to World War II by having Charles Wallace travel back in history. There were moments where they repeat a verse about lord and power in heaven. Also Charles test his faith and will in searching for a way out of tragedy in the world with four given people from different worlds. He needs to accomplish the puzzle and save the world from a nuclear war in short time.

I thought the book started out well by having the Murry family eating a Thanksgiving dinner, but as I read on, the book was confusing a bit. Even though, it took me a while to really understand the reading, I couldn’t stop reading the book because such fantasy is amusing. I have never heard of an unicorn going on a journey with a young boy. The language was easy to understand, but some names of the characters confused me for a while when I approached that part of the book.

It’s a great book for middle school students or children around 12+ years old because it has easy text to follow but you would need to be patient to follow the storyline with a change in time between some parts. If anyone likes fantasy novels or somewhat historic-related novels, this would be your choice.

Reviewed by Nancy Wong
A Swiftly Tilting Planet is an adventure of a boy of fifteen that is given a gift by the heavens, which his sister partially owns, to enter a person’s thoughts and being. He meets with a unicorn that consumes moon and star light, and can travel through time. This unicorn assists the boy in traveling to the past so he could enter "within" different people and become them to change the course of history to prevent a future nuclear war from happening before it's too late.

The book does not refer to World War II directly, but it does relate to war as it is about the possible start of World War III. This book shows how events in the past can affect the future greatly. Like all wars, they have many causes. It also shows how powerful one person can be, and is able to make changes in history. Nuclear war was also a result of World war II. I don’t think this book has much to do or relate with other World War II text and books, such as Night.

I think this book was definitely exciting and fun. I’ve loved to read fiction books ever since I was in elementary school so this brought me back to those times and it was certainly a treat. If I was to rank this book on an academic level, I would put it on 6th grade reading level. However, I personally think this should be read by all ages. At times, it was confusing to understand what was going on, but was I read on, the story became clear, understandable, and enjoyable.

People who loves fantasy and wonder should absolutely pick up this book and read it.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle

Reviewed by Adam Kahn

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle is the third book in the A Wrinkle in Time series. It centers around a boy named Charles-Wallace Murry and his older sister Meg Murry-O'Keefe. In the story, Charles-Wallace must adventure through time and space to stop a mad man from starting a nuclear war. With the help of Meg and a magical unicorn named Gaudior, Charles-Wallace fights to stop the evil Echthori and save the future of the human race.

The book relates to WWII in that if Charles-Wallace fails, the entire world would be affected, just like during WWII, if the allies had failed to beat the Germans then the Germans probably have taken over mush of the world. I enjoyed this book because every chapter brought something new. Every time I put the book down I couldn’t wait to pick it up again and read what happened next.

I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys reading fantasy novels. It has a good story and fascinating characters whose personalities are all unique.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeline L’engle Reviewed by Laura Wong

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeline L’engle is part of a group of books in which familiar characters and the themes of time traveling are used. In this novel, L’engle tells about a boy named Charles Wallace as he travels through time with a unicorn that goes by the name of Gaudior in order to save the current world from destruction by a mass murderer. When he reaches his "when" that he needs to be, he enters into someone’s body and "becomes" them while still maintaining the ability to influence their actions.

This book shows how what is happening in the present could have been and is also likely to have been influenced by the past. It illustrates how what one person does could affect next, even after several centuries. Although, not directly, this relates to how the events of the Holocaust still affect us today.

Although this book was a little hard to follow at times, making it important to not skim through the pages, I enjoyed reading it for the most part. This is not a book that I would care to read again, however, it was good the first time around. While reading you will feel compelled to know what would happen next. The wording is very easy to understand, except for the occasional word that one might not know, which can usually be understood through context.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet is a good book for people who enjoy reading science- fiction/fantasy books and thinking about how everything in the universe is connected.