A Wrinkle in Time and Stranger Things: Holly's book, Mr. Whatsit and the Black Thing
Universe · Madeleine L'Engle · 1962
The novel received the Newbery Medal in 1963. The story comes first, then the names the season keeps from it, and why a picture book was set aside.
A Wrinkle in Time is the book Holly Wheeler reads in November 1987: a novel by Madeleine L'Engle, published in 1962, in which three strange beings guide Meg Murry to the planet Camazotz. Holly takes from it the name Camazotz and two comparisons: Henry as IT, Max as Meg's father. The name Mr. Whatsit comes from the same book. Henry, for his part, takes the Black Thing.
The essentials
- The novel: A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle, 1962.
- Award: Newbery Medal 1963
- In the series: Holly's book, November 1987, and the name Mr. Whatsit, from Mrs Whatsit
- What Holly takes from it: Camazotz, Henry compared to IT, Max to Meg's father
- What Henry takes from it: The Black Thing, Meg, the light
- The book set aside: The Polar Express, according to the Duffer brothers (People, December 2025)
Contents
- What the novel lends, and who uses it
- Madeleine L'Engle's novel, in a few lines
- The three ladies, Camazotz, IT and the Black Thing
- Holly reads the book: where Mr. Whatsit comes from
- Camazotz, Holly's word
- The Black Thing and IT: what is told, what is sent back
- Why this book, and not The Polar Express
- A name that does not come from Dungeons & Dragons
What the novel lends, and who uses it
The series does not retell the novel. It takes names from it, not the plot. Holly names and compares, Henry twists them. The name Mr. Whatsit comes from the book, but the series does not say who chose it.
In the novel, Mrs Whatsit is a former star who guides Meg. In the series, Mr. Whatsit is the friend everyone thinks is imaginary, and he is Henry. Mike ties him to the book: “it's Mrs. Whatsit in the book”. Camazotz, the dark planet ruled by a brain with no body, becomes a spirit made of memories. That brain, IT, is used to compare Henry. The novel's imprisoned father echoes the prisoner of 1986. The shadow that invades worlds, Henry brandishes it, then a classmate sends it back to him. The thirteen-year-old heroine, he cites her to tell the children they are set apart.
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Madeleine L'Engle's novel, in a few lines
Madeleine L'Engle, an American writer, was born in New York in 1918 and died in 2007. She wrote the book in 1959 and 1960. The names of the three ladies came to her in the spring of 1959, on a ten-week trip across the United States, among deserts and buttes. The English-language Wikipedia takes this from her memoirs.
At least twenty-six publishers turned it down. It came out in 1962 from Farrar, Straus and Cudahy (which became Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1964), under the Ariel Books imprint. The Newbery Medal followed in 1963. More than ten million copies have been sold. It is the first of the five books in her cycle, the Time Quintet.
The 2003 television film and the 2018 film keep the original title, A Wrinkle in Time.
The three ladies, Camazotz, IT and the Black Thing
Meg Murry is thirteen. Her little brother, Charles Wallace, is a very advanced child. Calvin O'Keefe is a schoolmate. Meg's father, Dr. Alex Murry, has disappeared while working on a fold in space-time. Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which are three supernatural beings. Mrs Whatsit is a former star, who exploded while sacrificing herself against the darkness. They make the children travel by folding space. The novel calls this a tesseract. The series, for its part, does not use the word.
On the planet Uriel, the three ladies show them the Black Thing, a dark cloud that attacks the universe. Farther on, a seer makes them see that the Earth is partly covered by it. Camazotz has given in. The houses there are identical, and the children bounce their ball at the same time. The Man with Red Eyes speaks for IT, a brain with no body, which the novel calls telepathic, and which rules the planet. Charles Wallace lets himself be taken. The father is a prisoner.
Meg frees her father. They flee to the planet Ixchel. She comes back alone and frees her brother through the love she bears him. The return to Earth happens at the very moment of the departure. The English-language Wikipedia links the name Camazotz to a Maya bat god, citing Stott (1977). Its page on Camazotz adds a spirit from the Popol Vuh, “death bat” in K'iche'. Nothing says the author explained it. The novel sets light against darkness. It also deals with conformity.
Holly reads the book: where Mr. Whatsit comes from
On November 3, 1987, in The Crawl, Holly reads the novel at breakfast.
After school, Mike finds her. He brings up his sister's mystery friend, Mr. Whatsit. She answers that he only wants to help, and that he warns her: monsters are after the children.
In the second episode, Nancy mentions the imaginary friend taken from the book. Mike says the character in the novel is a woman, then that he thought it was Holly's invention. The rest of the story is told in their investigation.
In the novel, Mrs Whatsit is an ally who changes shape and guides Meg. In the series, Mr. Whatsit is Henry. The kindly name serves as a mask.
In the fifth episode, Max helps Holly recall her first meeting with Henry. After class, she says, at the school library. He says he loves this book, then he introduces himself as Henry. The book is his way in. The series does not say which day he first approached her.
Who chose the name? The series does not show it. Mike believes it is Holly's invention. The wiki attributes it to her. Other children say the name too. Derek, in the fourth episode, says Mr. Whatsit sent him. An interview adds that classmates also see their own Mr. Whatsit.
Camazotz, Holly's word
In Sorcerer, Max explains to Holly that she is a prisoner of Henry's memories. She answers with the name of the planet. “Like Camazotz.” They make her repeat it. “Camazotz. From A Wrinkle in Time.” The reply comes: the book has not been read. She sums up a dark planet under the control of a giant brain, with no body, and a father taken prisoner. Then the comparison. “Henry's kinda like IT, and you're kinda like Meg's dad.”
The word then circulates. It comes back in the same episode, to say that you can get out. The sixth episode is called Escape from Camazotz. In this chapter, she is told she has found a passage.
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The Black Thing and IT: what is told, what is sent back
Holly compares Henry to IT, in the fourth episode. She is not the one who calls him the Black Thing. He is the one who speaks of it, and a classmate who sends it back to him.
In Shock Jock, at his house, in front of the kidnapped children, he says a darkness threatens the world. He compares it to the book. “like the Black Thing in your book”. The same shadow, he says, threatened Meg's family. He says he has found another world, free of monsters and of darkness, and that it is the light. “Like Meg, you are special.” He wants to bring that world closer to ours. The children know the book: the class reads it at school.
In The Bridge, he accuses Max of working for that shadow. Then he pretends to give up: maybe he has failed, and the shadow has won. The children repeat a call toward the light. In the novel, too, the children of Camazotz bounce their ball at the same time.
In The Rightside Up, it is recalled that Mr. Whatsit is not the only one with gifts. When the children finally see Henry as he is, Debbie, a classmate, points at him. “He's the Black Thing.” Another asks if the shadow took the ones who are missing. Holly answers that where she leads the children, the shadow can do nothing against them. The word has changed its target.
In the novel, IT is not the Black Thing. It rules the planet the shadow has conquered. Holly had chosen IT. The children end up adopting Henry's term.
The wiki claims that Holly told the other children that Vecna was the Black Thing. On screen, it is Debbie who says it.
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Episode 1 Breakfast
Holly reads the book.
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Episode 2 The theory
Mr. Whatsit is tied to the Mrs Whatsit of the book.
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Episode 4 The planet
Henry as IT, Max as Meg's father.
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Episode 5 The house
The Black Thing, Meg, the light.
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Episode 7 The chorus
The children repeat the call toward the light.
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Episode 8 The reversal
A classmate points at the shadow.
Why this book, and not The Polar Express
The Duffer brothers, Matt and Ross, first thought of The Polar Express, the picture book by Chris Van Allsburg published in 1985.
Matt says the novel was a book of their childhood, read around Holly's age, and that they saw her reading it at school. He found parallels in it with the story planned for her.
Ross says that in the early scripts, it was The Polar Express. Henry was supposed to be the conductor. Then the book seemed a bit too young. There would have been a conductor's cap, and a train toward the North Pole. For Matt, “Mr. Whatsit sounds cooler and creepier”.
They told People in December 2025.
A name that does not come from Dungeons & Dragons
Since 1983, the group has named the unknown with the Dungeons & Dragons manual. Here, the name comes from a novel.
In 1987, Holly does not play. Ross says so in an interview with Deadline, cited by Blavity on November 28, 2025. “she doesn't play D&D, but she needed something else”. The book helps her understand what is happening to her.
In the first episode, Mike offers her his own help: Mike the Brave, his dungeon crawls, and a character for her, Holly the Heroic, a cleric with gifts. He asks if the mystery friend can do that. According to the wiki, Holly the Heroic is a figure, which she wears as a pendant.
In the sixth episode, to get out, she is told that Holly the Heroic is not just a toy. “She's you, Holly.” The book gave her the words. The toy from the game table brings her back.
In the spring of 1989, she runs her own game.
A precedent exists, and it does not come from the game either. The tadpole bears the name of D'Artagnan, hero of a novel. He is called Dart.
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Frequently asked questions
What book does Holly read in Stranger Things?
A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle, published in 1962. She reads it at breakfast on November 3, 1987.
Who wrote A Wrinkle in Time?
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007). The novel received the Newbery Medal in 1963.
Who is Mrs Whatsit in the novel?
One of the three ladies. A former star, who guides Meg to Camazotz.
What is the Black Thing?
In the novel, the shadow that attacks the universe and has conquered Camazotz. In the series, Henry's word, then the one a classmate sends back to him.
Why does Holly compare Henry to IT?
Because in the novel, IT is the bodiless brain that rules Camazotz. She says it in the fourth episode.
Why did the Duffer brothers not choose The Polar Express?
According to People, in December 2025, the book seemed too young to them. Henry was first supposed to be the conductor.
