A Book Turning 50?

That's right... books have birthdays too!  This year, is the 50th birthday of the book A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle.  It is a fun story that helped bring the science fiction genre of children's literature to the forefront of American Culture.  It is something exceptional when a children's book is popular enough to make it to 50 years and is still well loved and often recommended.  Even books that have won the Newberry and Caldecott Medals have lost favor over time.

While I am excited about A Wrinkle in Time's great accomplishment, it is not the first book to reach this milestone.  Several books have come before it and there will be more in the future.  Cheryl, who also works in the Youth Services Department, felt this same excitement last year when it was the 50th birthday of the book, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, one of her absolute favorite books. 

Does your child have a favorite book?  Perhaps you can have a discussion about how old that book is and about the different types of people that may have read the book throughout the years.  You could work in a discussion about what life was like for children 50 years ago.  If your child were growing up in 1962 when this book came out, think about how it might have been to start thinking about 'time travel' when we hadn't even reached the moon yet.