What Makes a "Tween" Title?

L'Engle, Madeline. A Wrinkle In Time. Dell Publishing. 1962. 211 pages. Pb. $6.49, ISBN 978-1-25000-467-3
    
     When A Wrinkle In Time was written in 1962, and even the first time that I read it more than 20 years later, the term "tween" didn't exist. So how can you tell that this title falls into the category that most would agree is distinguished by being appropriate for children 8-12? In this case, it centers around the issues being faced by the narrator, the awkward, approximately 12 year old sister, Meg. She is in the "inbetween" phase, thus the origin of the word "tween" (Maughan, S., 2002). She is neither child, nor teen, struggling with themes such as identity and fitting in, desiring desperately to  both be herself and be like the pretty "normal" girls, or even more so, like her brilliant and beautiful mother.

     Meg also struggles with other internal issues such as social competencies, such as peaceful conflict resolution, interpersonal competence, cultural compentence and decision making (40 Developmental Assets for Middle Childhood, 2007). She responds with physical reactions when frustrated or verbally provoked. She prefers the company of her misunderstood little brother than children her own age and is generally untrusting of her classmates and even adults, especially where their motives are concerned. She also constantly questions her own decisions, worried that an incorrect decison will cause or has caused some sort of catastropy and is conflicted about her academics as the she is unmotivated in school, whether due to disinterest or not being challenged enough, and teacher's preconceived notions about her intelligence and family.

     External issues include feeling alienated from all adults aside from her parents, completely unvalued and uninvolved in decisions in the immediate environment that affect her, as well as feeling unsafe or unappreciated anywhere but home. She has no positive peer influences until she meets the slightly older Calvin, who may be well liked at school, but has a difficult home life, which makes it easier for Meg to appreciate what she does have in her life, and leads to her feeling less alienated and alone as she realizes that even those who are well liked may have problems very similar to hers.
In direct comparison she does have a strong, if not complex, home life. Though her father is considered missing, and her mother is somewhat distracted, she is a loving and devoted mother, which leads to positive values and due to the emphasis on intellectual exploration in the household, some sort of committment to learning, though it might be less conventional (40 Developmental Assets for Middle Childhood, 2007). She provides boundaries and rules, understanding and unconditional love for all her children. She reassures them, defends them, and tries to help them see the best of the situation in which they find themselves. While the twin 10 year old brothers seem almost outsiders to the struggle, as they are well liked and considered "normal", the mother, Meg and her little brother, Charles Wallace, form a united front, supporting one another in hard times. Even the twins do try to help , to some extent, telling Meg that it is their responsibility to handle the physical alterations when one of the Murray's families integrity is called into question (L'Engle, M., 1962, p. 4-5) .

     On a personal note, I know this is a tween book as I read it myself as part of an advanced reader program in the 5th grade, at the age of 10. I was going through a lot of the same issues....living with a sibling and a single parent, not fitting in, having low self-esteem, feeling ugly and awkward, questioning my own intelligence and decisions constantly, having difficulty trusting and bonding with other children after a number of moves in a short period of time and some bad experiences after my parents' divorce. It was a difficult transitional period which really didn't end until I started high school 4 years later. But, during that time, it was books like A Wrinkle in Time that let me know that I wasn't alone and that it might just be possible to find the things I was looking for in my life. That you could go through that growing process and come out alright on the other side, and that there were some childish beliefs or dreams that were ok to hang on to while growing into a new metaphorical skin. Maybe that's why, after all those years, I still had my own copy to pull out and read for this post!