Rating: 
Summary: A typical adventure, but worth it.
Review: After carrying off "A House Like a Lotus" so gracefully in the first person just a few years before, it is a bit of a comedown to see Polly O'Keefe relegated to third-person narrative viewpoint in "An Acceptable Time". This woman who matured so vividly in a book that was unique to the Murry-O'Keefe family series of novels is handed a more standard Time Quartet plotline of time travel, somewhat akin to Sandy and Dennys' trip to the time of Noah's Ark in "Many Waters". As a result, Polly feels less alive and less real, although she is unquestionably the same mature young woman we see at the end of "A House Like a Lotus".
This novel, at least, puts Polly one up on her mother by giving her a tessering adventure during the bloom of adulthood -- something that I missed with Meg. Although Polly's character doesn't get as good of a treatment in "An Acceptable Time", the character of Zachary Gray (seen in "A House Like a Lotus" and two Austin Family series novels) sees major development. In "A House Like a Lotus", he was relegated to the status of temptor and comforter to Polly, bemoaning his riches, his poor relationship with his parents, and his weak heart. The uneasy chemistry between him and Polly remains, but here, his health takes a turn for the worse, and Zachary is forced to face up to his mortality. By the end of the story, this man who once hated life is bitterly ashamed at what his fear of death leads him to do.
The story is typical L'Engle: well written, and deeper than one would expect given its target readership. While it is good, little makes stand out among the stronger stories of the Murry-O'Keefe series of novels, like "A Wind in the Door", "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" and "A House Like a Lotus".
In a way, it is good to have Polly lead this story, as opposed to Meg or some other character, for it ties the O'Keefe family series of novels closer to The Time Quartet. Previously, they had remained separate in style, with the second generation receiving more action-oriented, less fantastical storylines than the first. I always thought that Polly was missing out in not having the same type of fantastical adventures that marked her mother's teenage years. It also suggests to me that now that Polly has dabbled in Meg's universe, it is time for Meg to shine in Polly's type of story.
At last word, Madeleine L'Engle was working on an adult novel staring Meg Murry-O'Keefe at fifty, tentatively entitled "The Eye Begins to See". Now that Polly has had her tesser, I would be very happy to see Meg carry off in the first person a story about complex human relationships.
Rating: 
Summary: The first book that made me cry after reading it
Review: After finishing this book for the first time, I cried and put it back in the shelf. After reading A Ring of Endless Light, I read it again, thinking "Yeah, it was sad. But not really that sad..." After finishing it a second time, I could see why I put it away. Not just the sadness, the BETRAYAL. It almost made me cry again. One thing I did notice is that Zachary changed a lot since he was with Vicky. In A Ring of Endless Light, he wanted to die. In this book, he was afraid of it. Very good book, but beware: It's a tear-jerker.
Rating:
Summary: My review on An Acceptable Time by, Madeline L'Engle
Review: An Acceptable Time
by, Madeline L'Engle Polly O'Keefe, a brave girl who is well known to be wise beyond her years, gets trapped in an exciting and almost deadly experience. Polly, Bishop Colubra (her grandfather's friend), and her beau Zachary Grey get caught in a thrilling adventure that takes them through a time gate to 3,000 years in the past. Polly and bishop have both been through the time gate before and have returned safely to the present. What happens when Zachary crosses over with them could end up in a tragedy. The three of them enter the past, but this time once they're there the threshold closes behind them, leaving them in the past while two tribes are fighting over the best land (The People of the Wind and The People Across the Lake). Polly and the bishop know a few of the members of the People of the Wind from their previous visits that have been filled with even more exciting adventures. This time have they been trapped for a reason? Will the healers of the tribes be able to fix the murmur in Zachary's heart, even though modern medicine in their own time can't? Would they be reborn in the "future" if they died in the past? If you read An Acceptable Time by, Madeline L'Engle you will find some of the answers to these questions, but some will still remain a mystery.
An Acceptable Time an exhilarating and suspenseful science fiction novel. If you enjoy being rapt in a book that you just can't seem to put down, you will definitely like this book. It will take you on a wild ride into the past where two Indian tribes have totally different views on life itself. They struggle to find patterns in the stars to explain what happens in their lives.
Madeline L'Engle tends to write in a style so that no matter what age or gender that you are you can become one of the characters in the book. As this happens you grow and change as the characters do, leaving you with a little more insight on how to overcome obstacles in your life. An Acceptable Time "taught" me to be a more open minded person and that if something is worth fighting for, fight for it, but keep your mind open to the fact that you may need your opponent to help you in the future. Some events were predictable, but the best thing about this book was that the ending could not have been foreseen. This thrilling and adventurous book will give you a few more questions to ponder about and a little different aspect on life.
Rating:
Summary: The Fire Behind The Story Sparkles
Review: An Acceptable Time is another book in the L'Engle cannon that explores truths of reality through fantasy. At times, in fact, it carries with the book a firy truth that seems more actual than reality. Polly, the red-headed heroine, is at her most interesting if not her most believable. She is, admittedly, probably too much of the traditional hero: skilled in the right areas, good, and afflicted with an interesting situation, but these character traits only improve the book. The "interesting situation" is Polly's being stuck in a link between two time circles, so that she can walk freely between Time at her grandparents' home (the Murry scientists!) and Time in the same place hundreds and hundreds of years before. The Native Americans who have always lived in the place and the Druids who have been there more recently make all of the characters unique and historical and at the same time, appropriately fantastic. The highlight of the drama, of course, is that the Time Gate is closing, and Polly's stuck on the wrong side, and even worse, she's taken for a goddess on the side she's on. This is bad only because the goddess is deemed perfect for a sacrifice... The true treasure of this story is not just its plot, which definitely kept me reading, rapt, from beginning to end. Nor was the treasure its characters, which include Canon Tallis, a unique religious friend of the Murry's, two Druids with equal power but opposing philosophies, and Zachary, the weak but interesting friend of Polly's. The true treasure of An Acceptable Time lies in the heavy examination of philosophical questions that underlies the plots. The examination of "leigh lines" to explain the somewhat random connections between people and places and things throughout the real world, the mingling of Christian and ancient religious thought, and the astounding ideas of time, however fantastic, all create a fire behind the story that draws the reader not only to read once, but once again.
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Summary: THIS IS A MUST READ !!
Review: An acceptable time is, in my oppinion, one of her best books. Poly O'keefes journeys through time are really interesting to read about. When I started reading this book, I couldn't stop!
Rating:
Summary: A dissapointment
Review: As a fan of L'Engle I was looking forward to an Acceptable Time. All the other Murry books had been fun and interesting and I thought that an Acceptable Time would be up to their quality. Unfortuanatly it's not. At times it is interesting but overall the book as quite boring at times and fails to draw the reader in like the others have. The characters are good but seem less human than some of L'Engle's other books and are not as endearing. An Acceptable Time is worth reading if you are a fan of the Murry books but nothing more.
Rating:
Summary: L'Engle's Best Book!
Review: Brandishing their spears and howling incoherent imprecations, the band of savages stormed into the peaceful village, scattering its inhabitants like leaves.... No, this is not a scene from the book. It describes the jaded reviewers descending upon this marvelous book from their yellowed ivory towers, people who can no longer respond to the warmth of love this story brings to us. I was misled to expect something less than profound, but Madeline comes through like almost never before. (If you can love even Zachary, you don't need me to convince you. If you can't, I'll never make you understand.) Yes, I'm a L'Engle fan, because I believe the world desperately needs her clear firm and simple message: You have to care. You even have to care about pitiful people like Zachary, and care about your enemies too. That's the only way you'll stop having enemies. A lot of what is wrong with America is DIVISION. It's something we need to think about, and Madeline surely helps. This book moved and delighted me like no other has done for a long time.....
Rating: 
Summary: excellent
Review: everytime i travel i look forward to discovering a different madeleine l'engle book in the local library. this city only has A WRINKLE IN TIME, which is excellent, but i am craving AN ACCEPTABLE TIME in the magical setting i currently enjoy. i've downloaded this page just to see the cover....
Rating:
Summary: L'Engle best fantasy
Review: For me, this is one of those books that had, and keeps having, a huge positive impact. Yes, this is a time-travel tale, but more than that, it is a story about the kinds of sacrifice love is willing to make. Nobody gets beat over the head with the lesson here, but it will stick with you. Heads up: parts of this will be pretty heavy going for younger/more sensitive juvenile readers as blood sacrifice is discussed pretty frankly (though not at all graphically) here.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good But its slow for a start
Review: HI I'm Carrie from California and I'm 12. I've read most of this series and i didn't enjoy this book as much as others she wrote. I conent was very discriptive and is a beutifully written. Many of her books are time travel ones. My favorite thing of all about this book is that it has wounderful discritions and I recomed this for teens because if you not able to understand the vocabulary in these books then I dought you would understand this book <b>at all!!!!
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