Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Sequel to "The Moon by Night"
Review: I thouroughly enjoyed both of the previous Austin family books and looked forward to this one as being similiar. This was a very good L'Engle book, but reminded me more of "The Arm of the Starfish" than the Austin series. Nonetheless, it was a very enjoyable read.
An intriguing mystery, new characters, and more of a look at Rob and Suzy than the usual focus on Vicky. It was nice to see Canon Tallis again. I liked the way Ms. L'Engle weaves in spiritual truths: we are truly free only in obedience/submission to God.
I'm looking forward to the rest of the Austin series, and I hope Emily and Dave make a cameo or at least have a mention in the next books. I also want to note that one should definitely read "The Arm of the Starfish" before they read this novel. Though different series, they connect and "Starfish" will be spoiled unless you read it first.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Mystery
Review: In "The Young Unicorns", we meet up with the Austin family, who are now living in New York City, as Dr. Austin is working on a research project. We also meet 2 new L'Engle characters. Dave, who used to be in a gang called the Alphabats, and Emily, a blind girl who at times stays with the Austins. Dave now reads Emily her homework, as she can't read it herself. When bizarre things begin happening to the Austin family, and a bishop begins acting strangely, the Austin children begin to worry, and decide, with the help of Dave and Emily, to solve the mystery. But what they don't realize at the time, is that getting involved may cost them their lives.We all know that L'Engle writes amazing coming-of-age novels, but, after reading "The Young Unicorns", I now know that she also writes amazing mystery/suspense/sci-fi novels. This was an amazingly interesting book, and readers, whether previous L'Engle fans or not, will relish in her character descriptions, and adventure. A must have book. Erika Sorocco
Rating:
Summary: The best of L'Engle's books!
Review: In my opinion, this is Madeleine L'Engle's best book. It has everything-- suspense, mystery, a bit of science, families. The Austins are a believable family, although I can't believe that Dr. Gregory would run off to Europe and leave his blind daughter. The ending is a real surprise. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: An Austin sci-fi mystery
Review: New York City in the 1960s. It's a place where the sure sign of gang membership is a black leather jacket, where the worst drugs adolescents may encounter are "pot" and "acid," and where laser surgery is still the stuff of science fiction - although just barely. To the Austin family from Thornhill, Connecticut, it's simultaneously Sin City and a place where they have settled in to make a temporary home. Small Rob has ventured for the first time into a world of boys and men, by opting for a nearby cathedral's parochial school instead of going with his older sisters Suzy and Vicky. The family has taken two waifs into its bosom: Emily Gregory, their landlord's blind and motherless daughter; and Josiah "Dave" Davidson, a former gang member who reads Emily her lessons. How are Emily, Dave, Dave's father who works in the cathedral's maintenance department, the cathedral's dean, and a visiting Anglican canon connected to the research that the Austin children's father is mysteriously conducting during this year off from his country medical practice? That's the key to a mystery which Rob, Suzy, and Vicky all realize - at different times and in different ways - is threatening their family, too. L'Engle's two previous Austin books, and the one following this in the series, have Vicky as first-person narrator. I found myself missing her voice as I read, but I quickly realized why the author chose to tell this story in the third person. That approach enables us to follow the story from many different viewpoints. Having it unfold through Vicky's eyes alone would not, for this young adult thriller, produce a tale even half as satisfying. This is the first L'Engle book that I've read as an adult and found it dated. However, the story still works well on each of its various levels. I figured the mystery out before I should have, but can't say how well I might have done with it as a young teen.
Rating:
Summary: An intricate plot with wonderful twists.
Review: The Young Unicorns is a wonderful story full of mystery. Every good story has a few unexpected twists, and this book has plenty. In a plan to rule New York, the Austin family is placed center stage, unknowingly. Madeline L'Engle's books are always enchanting, and this one is no exception.
Rating:
Summary: One of the GREATEST
Review: The Young Unicorns was awsome! The plot was something I could never think of. This is a book you'll want to read over and over.
Rating:
Summary: The Young Unicorns
Review: This is a wonderful book. I loved it. It was full of mystery and suspense. The end is a shock. You just NEVER suspect it. This book is about the Austin family in New York. It also includes some new main characters, Emily and Dave. The book involves an attempt to control the city, then the world. The plan to take over almost comes true. This book is one that any person should read.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, insightful;last reader superficial,misunderstood
Review: This is an excellent book with many unexpected twists throughout the plot. It brings up morality in all facets: the church, science, and the family. It addresses many modern-day issues and shows how things are not always what they initially seem. I was very upset by the last review. Madeleine L'Engle is not saying that a family without a mother staying home and doing the cooking is a bad family. Many of her books have mothers who do work, and I think that her message is more that a family is what you make of it, whether there is one parent or two, one child or many children, whether you live in the city or the country. Also, L'Engle writes about Caucasions because that is what she knows. She is not being rascist. I think her messages are universal, and different skin color doesn't change your humanness or your susceptibility to danger or sinfulness or vulnerability. The writer of that review was being more rascist than L'Engle, because he/she was implying that there ARE differences between races, and there are not. It's not as though L'Engle beats it into the readers' heads that she writes about caucasions; it's just what she does, and it is not part of the messages she is trying to convey through her writing. That reader was looking at the most superficial and unimportant aspect of the book. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in something that addresses issues larger than who's dating whom and what's on TV. It is a book that will stay on the edge of your mind for months, and that you will want to reread again and again to learn more insight.
Rating: 
Summary: I hated it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: When I first finished the time quartet books, I figured, hey, why don't I try more books by this author?I read all the austins books besides this one, and then made a big mistake.This book was so stupid.No offense to the author, but she writes weird books.Half the time I was trying to figure out what was true and what wasn't,as with the rest of her maniac-supposed-to-be-good-but-aren't-all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips-books.Madeleine L'Engle has a small image of what a family should be like.My mother doesn't wear dressses and cook dinner everyday,but that doesn't make her bad.I felt heard because of the strong racial stereotypicality the austin series contained.The austin books are unrealistic, and unfunny.Everything goes right for them.And besides, all she writes about are caucasians.All my friends of all races who have read these books think they suck because theres no variation.and theres no plot.she should write books about Asians,Blacks,and Spanish too, because America is a country for everyone.And the other half the time, I didn't get her.I mean,what do kids know about mitchondria and farandlae?She should write about more interesting topics,if shes going to write for kids.If Madeliene L'Engle wants to interest me and my friends,and many others, she'll do that.
Rating:
Summary: A long-time, all-time favorite
Review: When I found this book, I was nearly an adult: a admired choirmaster told of adding it to the small library he maintained for his choirboys. But you are never too old to take up Madeleine L'Engle's books. If unlucky enough to miss them in your youth, you would waste neither your time nor her magic catching up later. As she explained once in a lecture, she does not write children's books, only some books which her publisher "markets" to children or young people. If a book of hers is read primarily by them, this is because it deals with subjects which are too difficult for grown-ups to understand! This respectful attitude was well justified by the many children seated around her in the front of the hall, readers who asked her the most thoughtful and penetrating questions of anyone in the evening's overflow audience. I love the cathedral in New York, and this book is about that. I also love music, and it is about that, too, quite profoundly. This is a book which every musically talented child, especially, should read. It has allegorical and symbolic elements, of which the author herself was partly unaware. Asked whether she intended Emily to be a Christ figure, she replied that she had not but, upon reflection, Emily is indeed so in several respects. Written in the mid 60s, it takes place in the future, e.g. today. In that sense, it is also remarkably prophetic. The church is in such a mess that her story of a clerical megalomaniac leading people badly astray would surprise no one. On a lighter note, even her vision of a Greek presiding over the organ at S. John the Divine has come to pass. I'm delighted that The Young Unicorns is again in print and even again in hard cover. It belongs very high on my list of recommendations or gift suggestions from age 10 to infinity.
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