I was and still am a L'Engle fan. She had such a wonderful imagination and worked so many concepts into her writing. You really had to think. Like when they try to land on the two dimentional planet. Humans are three dimentional. We can't do that.
Blume...she liked controversy in just about everything she wrote and most of it was written badly. It was social propaganda for pre-teens if you ask me.
RE: "Blume...she liked controversy in just about everything she wrote and most of it was written badly. It was social propaganda for pre-teens if you ask me."
"Social propoganda"? Does it make you feel good to drag your (misplaced and wrongheaded) politics into the discussion of a great children's writer? Blume's only "agenda" was to speak to children, and later, pre-teens 1) On their own level 2) about subjects that interest them 3) about challenges they face (especially young women here) and 4) without talking down to them or shoving a bunch of "life lessons" down their throats.
Blume was funny when she needed to be (Tales from a Fourth Grade Nothing is outstanding) and serious when the subject at hand was serious (as the older brother of a sister who is on the verge of puberty, I thank God my local library has a copy of "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" to help me out of some tough conversational jams).
What's your major malfunction?