Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time was my first and favorite science fiction book. I always felt connected to the protagonist, Meg, a bright adolescent girl who is sometimes uncomfortable at school. She desperately wants not to be awkward, and to know that her life will turn out well when she is finally an adult. One dark, rainy night, she is called upon to time-travel or "tesser" to rescue her father, a scientist who does top-secret work for the government. Through her adventures, I learned that even teenage girls could be capable of heroic feats ... even if they don't tesser.