Meet the Austins

Rating:
Summary: Not only for children
Review: I am not a big fan of saying this is a "child's book" because I was not a child when I read this book. It is a timeless and ageless book, one for the entire family. If you haven't read it, you should, no matter how old you are.

Rating:
Summary: very disappointing
Review: I had high expectations of this book, based on having read the author's Wrinkle in Time and on the other reviews here. But this was a dreadful book. The plot is predictable, the characterizations flat--especially Maggy is completely unengaging and implausible. And the moralizing is very obvious. Maybe I've just read too many children's books about orphans, fostering and adoption, but this one wouldn't even make it onto my list of the top 25 books with that theme.

Rating:
Summary: Not Good at All...
Review: I liked this story very much. It is about a quirky, nice, good family and is well worth rereading.

I have only three big complaints about it. Two of them are completely subjective opinions about the Austin family. The other is a complaint about the narrator's writing style. These complaints follow:

1. I think the parents in this family are too strict with their children. To me, there's always a creepy feeling of "do what we say or else we'll hurt you."

2. They are too religious to be held up as a perfect example family for my own personal tastes.

3. The narrator overuses the word AND. It's cute at first, but by the end of the story, my head was throbbing. I wished I could dismiss the word "and" forever, as wonderful a conjunction as it inarguably is. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and. Shudder.

Overall, though, this is a great book, and I recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Vicky is my favorite L'Engle character
Review: I love all the Austin stories. I was first introduced to the family through (I think) Women's Day magazine when I was 10. It was the "24 days till Christmas" story. A few years later, I came across the "Meet the Austins" book and felt like I found an old friend. I have probably read this book over 10 times and can't help but pick it up when I need an old friend. Vicky's struggles as a 12 year old learning her place in the family and at an "awkward" age between teenager and child is wonderfully written. I plan on buying my niece, who is 11, each Austin book for Christmas over the next few years so that she can also grow up with Vicky.

Rating:
Summary: Meet the Austins: not as dysfunctional as you might think
Review: Madeleine L'Engle likes the human touch. Sometimes, oddly enough, it isn't there. Her coming-of-age story about a busy household with lots of confusion and an orphaned child relative thrown in the mix does have the potential to make an impact. But the story dances around all of these themes, making it look like the Austins, and main character Vicky, have things just kind of "work out for them" with little effort on their part.

This does not bode evenly with the rest. Conflict and resolution between Vicky and her brother would take on a tone that I can only call forced-sweetness. In the thick of this, it doesn't sound like a sibbling argument.

But there is one thing that struck me: Uncle Doug, the bohemian brother to the Mr. Austin, explains to Vicky how some people are more articulate with their empathy than others and how it all boiled down to how your brain operated. Those with scientific minds can offer their empathy to someone no problem, since the universe comes to them in black and white. Those with artistic tendencies have more trouble. They see more gray, so they have trouble putting their regrets for others into words.

That alone is reason to pick up the book. All else are just details.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: This book deals alot with feelings of the typical 12 year old, even if it is set further back in time. Something that would be great for a mom and a daughter to read and then discuss together, because... they can both relate to it!
Plus, it leaves so much for you to talk about!

Rating:
Summary: fabulous
Review: this book is awesome. it remains one of my favorites. despite the fact that it was written in the 60s, it is still completely relevant to teenagers and families today. in fact, it seems to promote the "simpler" life of love and family that we all still want, without being at all saccharine or pushy. i love how the narrator, vicky, describes her family's life and events in such a matter-of-fact way, as if she was just talking to someone about what was going on... you know how sometimes someone can say a few words or describe a scene and you know exactly the feeling they mean? thats what happens thru out this book. it gives a warm and fuzzy feeling and the only problem is that you have to remind yourself the characters arent real. but it has great ethics, fun and 3d characters, and the Austin family is wonderful. also something ir eally liked: the Austins' family clearly includes some of their close friends (for example, the character of Aunt Elena)... its not about a birth thing, and it never gets addressed but its just so natural that their extremely loving and tightknit family should include friends just as easily.

i really, really recommend this book to anyone. its both an easy read and thoughtprovoking, and encouraging, anddddd just awesome!!!! :-)

Rating:
Summary: A book for adults as well as for kids!
Review: Twelve-year-old Vicky Austin has a secure and happy home with her physician father, homemaker mother, older brother John, and younger siblings Suzy and Rob, in their big house outside a small American town. The Austins practice an unpretentious but fully committed brand of Christianity, and despite normal squabbling and adolescent angst their elder daughter knows she is surrounded by love and treasures it.

Then Maggy Hamilton, ten years old and newly orphaned, lands in their midst and does her best to change everything. For a time this little girl who has never known a real home before does a good job of disrupting the Austins' lives. To Maggy, toys are for breaking (her rich grandfather will replace them on demand, so why not?) and so are rules. Yet like all children, Maggy desperately wants to be loved. Can the Austins love her in spite of her obnoxious behavior? Or will her presence tear their happy family apart?

The answer to that question may be predictable, but the way it happens isn't predictable at all. Vicky as narrator has a sweet but decidedly not saccharine voice, and an outlook on life as a budding woman that when this story was first published (copyright 1960) was positively revolutionary. I particularly love the way L'Engle imbues this and many of her other books with a matter-of-fact yet profound spiritual dimension, by depicting Christians who live their faith as if that were the most natural thing in the world.

I'm surprised I didn't find this book when I was at the age level for which it was written, since in 1960 I was 8 years old. However, all really fine children's literature can also be enjoyed by adult readers; and that's especially true of Madeleine L'Engle's work. I look forward now to reading the rest of the Austin series.

Rating:
Summary: The Perfect Family
Review: When an orphan named Maggy Hamilton comes to live with the Austin family, their lives are turned upside down. Especially Vicky's, since she feels out of place with the new girl being there. Vicky is upset, because she doesn't sympathize with Maggy's tragic loss. She also feels useless. Like she can't possibly help with anything, when that's far from the truth. But when it begins to look as if Maggy won't be leaving the Austin family anytime soon, Vicky tries to look on the bright side, and pray that happy times are waiting in the future.

This was an excellent book, featuring one of my favorite families, the Austins. Madeleine L'Engle writes with such poetic grace, and makes you feel like you are right there with the Austins, sharing their pain. A must-have book for everyone. Young and old.

Erika Sorocco