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69th out of 266 books
—
365 voters
Meet the Austins (Austin Family #1)
A revised edition, including one section of the manuscript that was omitted in the original publication. Vicky Austin and her siblings must adjust to the presence of a new member of the household-Maggie Hamilton, who is orphaned when her father is killed in a plane crash. Maggie is at first petulant and spoiled, but gradually opens her heart to the Austins to become one of...more
Hardcover, 224 pages
Published
October 30th 1997
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
(first published 1960)
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Jun 01, 2011
Elizabeth
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
all young teens (maybe mostly the female ones)
This is a novel about a family whose members share their experiences with each other, who accept each each member with love, trusting each other enough to not feel the need to hide things. We could all learn a thing or two from them.
I've read other books in the Austin family series before this one; out of order too. I love A Ring of Endless Light so much, my copy of it is literally falling apart. Recently I decided I really ought to start at the beginning.
I was very glad I did. I can't get enoug...more
I've read other books in the Austin family series before this one; out of order too. I love A Ring of Endless Light so much, my copy of it is literally falling apart. Recently I decided I really ought to start at the beginning.
I was very glad I did. I can't get enoug...more
4 likes · like · see review
view all 5 comments
Sep 03, 2007
Lisa Vegan
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
children's lit fans, Madeleine L'Engle fans
This is one of my favorite books from childhood. I first read it in 1962 when I was 9. I still enjoy the story, and all of Madeleine L'Engle's books for that matter, but I think it's probably somewhat dated; kids today might not enjoy it that much, unless they are reading it as a period piece. It's the story of a family told from the point of view of the 12 year old daughter. This is the first book about the Austin family, just as A Wrinkle In Time is the first book about Meg Murray and her fami...more
3 likes · like · see review
At first when I started reading this book I thought it was a boring story about a seemingly perfect family and their less than extraordinary life. Then I remembered that not every book needs to be full of strife and conflict and sadness and action-packed despair. Some books can be about life, the SIMPLE parts of life that often get neglected in storytelling. Which is exactly what this book is.
The story is about the Austin family, two parents who love each other, four siblings who love each other...more
The story is about the Austin family, two parents who love each other, four siblings who love each other...more
The Austins seem like the perfect family. Then one day their blissful lives are interrupted by a tragedy. A family friend and his copilot were killed in a plane accident, leaving behind a ten-year old spoiled brat, Maggy who has nowhere to stay. She lives with the Austins, and their adventures begin. She has a big influence on the Austins' daughter Suzy who starts getting into trouble with Maggy. The story follows their life together and adjustments they have to make for Maggy. It is narrated by...more
Another feel good book from Madeleine L'Engle. It had a modern-day Little House on the Prairie feel to me.
"They'd always hoped it would be longer than it was...she said she was grateful for every moment she'd ever had with him, and, even if it was all over, she wouldn't trade places with anybody in the world."
"Grief for the big things takes a long time to come," Mother said. "You know how, when you cut yourself badly, you don't feel it at all for a long time? It doesn't hurt till the numbness w...more
"They'd always hoped it would be longer than it was...she said she was grateful for every moment she'd ever had with him, and, even if it was all over, she wouldn't trade places with anybody in the world."
"Grief for the big things takes a long time to come," Mother said. "You know how, when you cut yourself badly, you don't feel it at all for a long time? It doesn't hurt till the numbness w...more
Going into this book I had no idea that it was the only book in this series that didn't have a fantasy or science fiction theme. Throughout most of the book I couldn't quite put my finger on why I was disappointed with it, but after reading the description from Wikipedia it was obvious to me that that was what I was missing. Most of Madeleine L'Engle's other books that I love include some element of fantasy and I really missed that in this story.
I hadn't read this book before, and the only other...more
I hadn't read this book before, and the only other...more
I now suspect that there was way more Jesus hiding in A Wrinkle in Time than I ever noticed as a small atheist child. The book in and of itself is not bad - a little dull, when you were secretly hoping for tesseracts and Beasts - but not bad. The writing from the perspective of Vicky is very well written, matching with a smart-but-not-superhuman kid her age. The Austins are lovably quirky, even more so if you consider the fact that they live in the 1960s.
But I couldn't help but feeling that the...more
But I couldn't help but feeling that the...more
This time I read, “Meet the Austins” by Madeleine L’Engle was a very good book. After Maggie Hamilton’s dad dies in a plane crash, she is left in a orphan home, but then she goes to live with the Austin family. It was hard for Maggie to live in the country because Maggie is a spoiled 6 years old from New York City. It was a hard change for her but even harder change for the Austin children to get used to a spoiled girl from the city.
One thing that I didn’t like about this book was that it was a...more
One thing that I didn’t like about this book was that it was a...more
"Meet the Austins" by Madeleine L'Engle was a very good book. After Maggy Hamilton's dad dies in a plane crash, she is left in orphan who goes to live with the Austin family. Maggy is a spoiled 6 year old from New York City, so going to live in the country is a hard change for her but an even harder change for the Austin children to get used to this girl from the city. I believe the message of this novel is that change may be hard, but if everyone tries it can work out. The author's writing styl...more
This was an interesting book. It's told from thirteen year old Vicky Austin's point of view. Her family is a semi-devout, middle class family who is very close. In the book, Vicky deals with several different things. Her first problem is a new addition to her family. After her uncle and his co-pilot die in a plane crash, Maggy, the co-pilot's daughter, comes to live the the Austin family. She is spoiled and doesn't really know how to socialize with other children. It takes a while for the family...more
Madeline L'Engle won the Newbery in 1963 for her classic "A Wrinkle in Time". This is a much lesser known work (I'd never heard of it until I discovered it while doing library inventory) published two years prior to Wrinkle.
This is a very different genre than any thing else I'd read by L'Engle. This is not sci-fi or fantasy.
The only resemblance to her greatest known work is that two characters names from this book turn up again as the major characters in her Newbery Classic.
Meet the Autins is...more
This is a very different genre than any thing else I'd read by L'Engle. This is not sci-fi or fantasy.
The only resemblance to her greatest known work is that two characters names from this book turn up again as the major characters in her Newbery Classic.
Meet the Autins is...more
It was delightful, getting to know this family through their adventures and mishaps. The funny thing that I noticed whilst reading it, though, is that when I was a kid, I would read a book like this* and pay attention entirely to the what the children were doing, and how they interacted with one another. Now that I'm older (one might say "at a certain age") I find that I am far less interested in the kids' antics and pay far more attention to how the grown-ups act, especially the parents. I thin...more
The first of the Austins books, chronologically, is Meet the Austins. The children are pretty young in this book and I found it harder to get interested in them in this book than it was in A Ring of Endless Light, which I read shortly before this book. With Meet the Austins, I was starting to realize that the Austin family basically IS the O'Keefe family from L'Engle's time books, except that the Austins border on annoyingly perfect. They're the kind of family you wish you grew up in, but that d...more
L'Engle's book about this delightful family follows several key events in their life over the course of about a year or so. Each of these events serves as a lens into the character and spirit of this family, showing them to be people of a rich a vibrant faith, culture, and love for one another. The stories of this family--all from the perspective of the second child, Vicky--are enjoyable to read and offer the young reader (and the old, for that matter) helpful ways to think about and process the...more
Eh. I go all bonkers for kids books usually, and I am going to keep reading this series, but jeez, Madeleine! This book is like 90% telling! Duh, didn't you take Creative Writing where they teach you to SHOW?
I'm having a lot of trouble deciding whether I liked this book or not. Unfortunately I read A Ring of Endless Light first, and Meet the Austins isn't anywhere near the depth and quality of A Ring of Endless Light, which is the 4th book in the series. I love reading about the Austin family, love their house, their lifestyle, their family interactions, but there was something I couldn't quite believe about it all. Maybe even the difficult events ended too perfectly or something. I can't quite put...more
I like Meet the Austins. It makes me cry and laugh and cry again, and L'Engle does a great job of writing in the voice of a teenage (or almost teenage) girl.
Nothing much happens in this book, but that's okay; the chronos series in general is mostly about Vicky growing up. Only a couple of the books get into the greater storyline we have in the kairos books.
I can't exactly give a full-throated recommendation for Meet the Austins, because, well, nothing happens, and also, the Austins are a bit too...more
Nothing much happens in this book, but that's okay; the chronos series in general is mostly about Vicky growing up. Only a couple of the books get into the greater storyline we have in the kairos books.
I can't exactly give a full-throated recommendation for Meet the Austins, because, well, nothing happens, and also, the Austins are a bit too...more
3.5 stars
It took me about 30 pages to really get into this book but once I did, I was delighted. I can't wait to read more about the Austin family! They seem like such a down to earth family, a bit of sibling squabbling but they still love each other at the end of the day. The family probably seems "quaint" by today's standards but I love how the mother takes care of her husband and children, the father works hard to provide for his family, and the children have chores and are expected to mind t...more
It took me about 30 pages to really get into this book but once I did, I was delighted. I can't wait to read more about the Austin family! They seem like such a down to earth family, a bit of sibling squabbling but they still love each other at the end of the day. The family probably seems "quaint" by today's standards but I love how the mother takes care of her husband and children, the father works hard to provide for his family, and the children have chores and are expected to mind t...more
My expectations for this book were too much influenced by the "YA" sticker on its spine when I took it out of the library. I discovered pretty quickly that this is clearly a children's book, not YA at all: the cadence, the vocabulary, the descriptions of family life, are very clearly aimed at someone who's nine or ten, not thirteen or fourteen.
While it is a nice little children's book, after the style of its decade, it does not transcend its genre, like a Wrinkle in Time did.
I would read it gl...more
While it is a nice little children's book, after the style of its decade, it does not transcend its genre, like a Wrinkle in Time did.
I would read it gl...more
Feb 03, 2012
E.L.
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to E.L. by:
Cathy
Shelves:
2012-reads-and-rereads
The Austins manage in this, the first book featuring them, to be real, idealistic, and lovable all at once. None of them are perfect, but overall they represents exactly what I long for most - a family of loving, thinking, laughing individuals. I can never read a dinnertime scene without fiercely wishing for that in my own house.
If you are looking for an exciting story, this isn't it. If you are looking for a story that seems simple on the surface, yet simmers with quiet joy underneath, that sta...more
If you are looking for an exciting story, this isn't it. If you are looking for a story that seems simple on the surface, yet simmers with quiet joy underneath, that sta...more
I am re-reading the Austin Family book series for young adults by Madeleine L'Engle. It's amazing to read the introduction by her grandkid (although not so much a kid anymore). The series is timeless and yet dated simultaneously. The tumultuous trials of growing up in middle class America are universal. However, things like running to answer the house phone and playing records are very 1960's. Madeleine was ahead of her time in discussing complex topics like the balance between science and faith...more
I'm so happy to have met the Austins. They're a really neat family. They love each other even though they don't always get along. There's a good representation of artist types and scientist types in the family. The main character, Vickey, is just a regular 12 year old trying to make her way. They're always spending time outdoors. And they're huge non-conformists (anti-muffins, so to speak), that's always nice.
One thing I will say, the title is very appropriate. The book is really just getting to...more
One thing I will say, the title is very appropriate. The book is really just getting to...more
THE SUNDAY FAMILY READ
When Meet the Austins was published in 1960, Madeleine L'Engle was two years away from publishing her break out book A Wrinkle in Time. Somewhere I read that she was quite discouraged as an author at this time, even though she had been writing stories since childhood. She got published but prior to Wrinkle in Time her books had not sold well. In the long run, Meet the Austins grew into her second most well-known series.
I loved this book. It has all the charm of my favorite...more
When Meet the Austins was published in 1960, Madeleine L'Engle was two years away from publishing her break out book A Wrinkle in Time. Somewhere I read that she was quite discouraged as an author at this time, even though she had been writing stories since childhood. She got published but prior to Wrinkle in Time her books had not sold well. In the long run, Meet the Austins grew into her second most well-known series.
I loved this book. It has all the charm of my favorite...more
3 likes · like · see review
Dec 18, 2011
Dolly
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
parents reading with their children
Shelves:
2011,
aviation,
childrens,
pets,
new-england,
other-usa,
ocean-seashore,
education-school,
relationships
Hallelujah! We finally finished this book! We started it about nine months ago...
This is an interesting tale of a family's life in rural Vermont, filled with moral lessons, compassion and anecdotes that are at times sad, funny or happy. The family eschewed the materialism that seems to plague Americans; and the traditions and principles that the family holds dear are ones that we could all likely benefit from in our own lives. The tale has an old fashioned feel to it, which makes sense as the st...more
This is an interesting tale of a family's life in rural Vermont, filled with moral lessons, compassion and anecdotes that are at times sad, funny or happy. The family eschewed the materialism that seems to plague Americans; and the traditions and principles that the family holds dear are ones that we could all likely benefit from in our own lives. The tale has an old fashioned feel to it, which makes sense as the st...more
L'Engle's Austin family is one of my favorites in storytelling. They are simply delightful and would be almost too good to be true, except that the kids squabble just as much as anybody. This book introduces Vicky Austin and her family, just as little Maggy Hamilton arrives to throw everything into a tizzy. It's a fun and thoughtful family story and will make you want to read the ones that follow. Ms L'Engle has said that she is a lot like Vicky, in many an interview. I wish I could be like Mrs....more
Here’s the funny thing about Meet the Austins. When I read it in elementary school, I found the pace slow and so almost never discovered Madeleine L’Engle. I reread Meet the Austins only after I fell for Madeleine L’Engle’s other books. Yet now upon rereading the Austin books, Meet the Austins is by far my favorite because of its rich thematic depth. The rest of the world almost never discovered Meet the Austins either, given that it was rejected by publishers for two years. Why? Because Madelei...more
I'm a big fan of Madeleine L'Engle's work. And am looking forward to reading yet another series of hers this summer. I was expecting the plot to be similar to the Time series, but wasn't unhappy with the lack of science fiction in this novel, in comparison. Something I have begun to notice is this: L'Engle slips in a pianist, classical music references and artists in each book I've read of hers. It's almost as reliable as a reference to astrophysics, creation, God, religion and general science o...more
It held up yet again. Interesting that lately I've noticed that I tend to feel emotionally attached to the parents as much as the kids (heading in that direction and age myself, I guess it's inevitable!), but I didn't have that so much with this - I think that's a testament to L'Engle's writing, since she captures so well the angst of pre-teen self-absorption without it being tedious and unbearable to read (HP Book 5 anyone?). I still identify strongly with Vicky Austin, and I am still envious o...more
I wonder how I would have felt about this book if I would have read it as a kid? I haven't read much of L'engle outside of A Wrinkle in Time, which I loved as a kid. I read this after people started talking about all the books of hers they loved after she died this year. There were a lot of things I liked about the book, the fun jumble of this family's life together, the adventures they have, the love that they have and share with the new girl. But as I was reading I was bugged by some of the wa...more
This was the first of L'Engle's books that we've read that was not science-fiction. I read it aloud to my 9 year old daughter. Through a series of tragic circumstances an newly orphan girl is cared for by the Austin family. Their family dynamic and relationships are fun to follow. The struggles of childhood are well shown. I'm looking forward to reading the next book but when my daughter is a little older because the daughter who narrates that story is a teenager with a different set of struggle...more
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Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her Young Adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and Many Waters. Her works reflect her strong interest in modern science: tesseracts, for example, are featured prominently in A Wrinkle in Time, mitochondrial DNA in A Wind in the Door, organ regener...more
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“Maybe that's the best part of going away for a vacation-coming home again.”
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