A Book, Too, Can Be A Star by Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Jennifer Adams

How author Madeleine L'Engle came to write her most famous book, A Wrinkle In Time is told is this picture book written by her granddaughter, Charlotte Jones Voiklis.

The story begins with the background of why stars were so important to Madeleine. One starry, brilliant night when she was a baby, Madeleine's "parents woke her and took her outside to see the splendor of the starry night sky." To Madeleine the stars seemed to be singing and "she realized that there was more to her world than daylight".

Madeleine's father was a writer and her mother was a pianist. Watching her father work she realized that writing offered a way to ask questions. Madeleine noticed that the piano often calmed her mother.

Madeleine was an only child and she was often alone as her parents attended fancy parties. They lived in New York City, not far from the Metropolitan Museum of Art where Madeleine enjoyed looking at paintings. Madeleine thought music and art were also another way of asking and answering questions. This led Madeleine to begin writing her own stories that would also ask and answer questions. She felt that " a book can be a star - a new and fiery creation that can shine light into a dark universe" if someone had a difficult question or felt unsure.

Madeleine continued to write all through her difficult school years when she was sent to a boarding school and later on when she went to a less strict school where she made friends more easily. After college, during the Second World War, Madeleine moved to Greenwich Village in New York City and often visited the planetarium. She also began acting and was able to publish her first novel, The Small Rain. During this time Madeleine met another actor, Hugh Franklin and they fell in love, married and moved to a farmhouse in Connecticut. While Madeleine continued to write, Hugh ran the general store. They now had a family of three children.

Hugh decided he too wanted to tell stories and return to acting so they first took a camping trip across the country before making the move back to New York City. It was in a place called the Painted Desert that Madeleine was inspired by the glittering star filled skies, to write a very different story. The book was finished by the time the family arrived in New York City and at first was rejected by publishers. But when A Wrinkle In Time was published, adults and children loved the book. Madeleine continued to write and to encourage her fans to write too.

Discussion

Madeleine L'Engle's granddaughter, Charlotte felt inspired to write a book about her famous writer-grandmother. Initially, she wrong a first draft of a picture book, but the publisher wanted something very different. So that book was Becoming Madeleine, a middle-grade biography. Charlotte and another author, Jennifer Adams eventually connected to create A Book, Too, Can Be A Star. For Charlotte, the importance of stars was to be the underlying theme of the book - the idea that the world is connected and filled with beauty. The book would begin with the very early and impressionable memory Madeleine had of the starry night sky.

In the note, Why Stars? at the back of the picture book, the authors write, "...the night sky was an important part of how Madeleine nurtured a sense of connection to other beings and to the universe." It's like the sky gave Madeleine a sense of the inter-connectedness of everything, not just among the stars, but here on Earth too.

The title comes out of Madeleine's Newbery Medal acceptance speech in which she talked about how books can enlarge our view of the world, the universe, opening us to new ideas and experiences.

Helping tell Madeleine's story is the vibrant illustrations of artist Adelina Lirius who created them digitally using Procreate. Some aspects of the illustrations were done in a traditional manner using gouache.

A Book, Too, Can Be A Star highlights Madeleine's fortitude and perseverance, as she overcame some difficult years as a shy student in a very rigid boarding school. Madeleine found her own way through writing and acting, using stories to ask questions and seek answers. Inspired by the beauty a the star-filled sky, Madeleine's book, A Wrinkle In Time became a classic for all ages.

Likewise, this is a beautiful and engaging picture book for all ages.

Book Details:

A Book, Too, Can Be A Star: The Story of Madeleine L'Engle and the Making of the Wrinkle in Time by Charlotte Jones Voiklis and Jennifer Adams
New York: Farrar, Straus Giroux   2022