Madeleine L’Engle is best known for her young adult fiction, books that reflect both her Christian faith and her strong interest in science. Some interesting facts about her and her work:

• She wrote her first book at age five and started keeping a journal at eight.
• For many years, she wrote and submitted her work only to be rejected time and time again. She decided on her 40th birthday to give up after receiving yet another rejection. But, she didn’t give up — “I had to write. I had no choice in the matter. It was not up to me to say I would stop because I could not . . . I still had to go on writing.”
• Her book, A Wrinkle in Time, was rejected over 30 times before finding a publisher.
• When the book was finally published, it became an instant classic, selling over 16 million copies in 40 languages.
• It also won the Newbery Medal, the highest honor a children’s book can receive.
• A Wrinkle in Time is also one of the most frequently banned books.
• The film rights for A Wrinkle in Time were first optioned 30 years ago and languished until director Ava DuVernay agreed to direct the $100 million project.
• The film version of the book releases on March 8, this Friday, and will be the first movie with this high of a price tag to be directed by a woman of color.
• L’Engle received over a dozen honorary degrees from colleges and universities.
• In 2004 she received the National Humanities Medal.
• L’Engle was inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame in 2011.
• In a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers, A Wrinkle in Time was voted the number two children’s novel behind Charlotte’s Web.