Customer Reviews

Meet the Austins

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When Meet the Austins was first published in 1960, standards and sensibilities in childrens/young adult publishing were very different from what they are now. Madeleine L'Engle had a great deal of trouble selling this book because it began with a death, which was considered too upsetting for children to handle.

Even when Vanguard Press agreed to publish it, the novel was not published intact. An entire chapter, entitled The Anti-Muffins, was omitted. The chapter was about a small club of children who believe that people should not be too much like muffins, i.e., looking and behaving the same, and judged by superficial criteria (if it comes from the oven, it must be a muffin). It's hard to say after all these years whether the anti-conformist message was considered dangerous, or whether someone was upset by the middle class WASP kids being good friends with a poor Hispanic farm boy.

In 1980, The Pilgrim Press published The Anti-Muffins as a separate book. It has long-since gone out of print, and is considered rare. That hasn't stopped L'Engle fans from looking for the book ever since, so that they can read this missing chapter in the lives of the Austin family.

I'm glad to say this is no longer necessary. The current Farrar Straus Giroux edition of Meet the Austins, first published in 1997, restores The Anti-Muffins material back into the novel from which it was cut. (I'm pretty sure that even now, in 2002, the paperback edition still does not have this extra material.) If you're a fan of L'Engle's fiction, and especially of the books about Vicky Austin and her family, spend the extra money and get the hardcover. You won't regret it! ...

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.

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.

This is one of my favorite books. I love all of Madeline L'Engle's works and this is one of her best. It is told through the eyes of Vicky who is a thirteen year old. Many changes occur with her normal and loving family. One of Vicky's mother's beloved friend's (a.k.a Aunt Elena)husband died along with his co-pilot. The co-pilot's daughter is an orphan and comes to live with the Austins temporarily. At first she is a spoiled little brat, but she ends up changing for the better. Just when she's become like a member of the family, her grand father is deciding her fate. Many think the family is too unreal because they are too trusting and are very old-fashioned, which they are, but they are still lovable. You should really put this book on your shelf now!

This is the best book by Madeleine L'Engle I ever read! I got it when I was eleven, I'm now thirteen, and sinse then I've probably read it ten or so times over. It's a grrrreaat family story, the characters are incredibly REAL, and the theme is just marvy. I wish I had the new version that has some new chapters that weren't in the book my grandmother gave me.

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!

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!!!! :-)

Madeleine L'Engle is one of my favorite authors, and "A Wrinkle in Time" has been one of my most loved books since I was a child, also in the 60's. I read "Meet the Austins" later, many times, and really liked the family, except for Suzy. Never could stand her, especially as the books went on. She supposedly had it all, brains, looks, personality, while Vicky felt plain and boring, yet she took every opportunity to shoot Vicky down.

I hadn't thought much about their family dynamics other than they were pretty close to being a "perfect" family, which was nice to read about, especially if one didn't happen to have the same at home. One thing that really stood out for me though, was that the Austins were supposed to be the embodiment of a loving, secure family with good Christian values. Yet, when sad, unhappy Maggy comes to live with them, every one of the kids loathed her and wanted her out of their lives. It didn't seem like they ever really tried to put themselves in Maggy's place, even for a minute, and think what her life was like. The parents made only one halfhearted attempt to point out that Maggy had never known one moment of what they took for granted, never known love, security, or a real family. No one even gave a thought, as they were feeling so bad for Elena, that Maggy had lost both her parents within a month. Where did the "good Christian values" go as soon as they had one test of those values? I don't think being a good Christian just means loving the people that are easy to get along with and who love you. I wondered also why Elena wanted Maggy to live with her, after she had been several years at the Austins', and had only known Maggy and her father one month before his death.

The other thing I never understood about the Austin series is that as soon as Maggy went to live with Elena,at the beginning of "The Moon By Night," after living with the Austins for years, she was never mentioned again, except for the LA visit. A part of the family is suddenly not there anymore and it's "out of sight, out of mind?' It was the same with Emily in "the Young Unicorns." That just seemed so odd to me.

"Meet the Austins" was a great read when I was a kid, and I appreciate it even more today because, despite the fact that decades have passed, the characters in the book are so human and true to life even today. This is a rare quality in family stories and met in my experience only by a few classics such as "Little Women". I also like the way L'Engle presents an obviously very intelligent and somewhat unusual family as normal folks who are not comically eccentric - there are no crazy inventor fathers building a flying machine in the back yard, or any of that. The family also has a strong sense of spirituality without being overtly preachy or religious, at least in my opinion. (Be warned, however, that the characters do discuss God and how he fits in with science in ways that non-believers may find a bit heavy-handed.)

The main character, Vicky Austin, didn't grab me as much as Meg Murry from L'Engle's "Wrinkle" did at the time, simply because Vicky was way more ordinary. Vicky doesn't go jetting off to a far planet to save her father; instead her adventures are far more conventional, such as a nighttime bike ride that ends unfortunately in a bad accident. Vicky's activities and thoughts generally have to do with more traditional female concerns such as the feelings of her various family members, world peace, and so on, and it's her older brother John who is busy building a space suit in the backyard with the help of his uncle - a project I was quite jealous of myself at the time! Thankfully, all is not lost in terms of female liberation, since Vicky has a younger sister Suzy who is very independent and non-traditional, in that she is bound and determined to become a doctor when she grows up come hell or high water. Suzy's goal might not seem unusual today, but when this book was written, and even for a few decades afterwards, little girls didn't just grow up and become doctors. You get the feeling Suzy is not going to let anything stand in her way, though.

This book is usually presented as being about the Austins taking in their orphaned cousin Maggy, who doesn't really fit in well and threatens to disturb the family unit. However, only a small portion of this book is about Maggy, and a lot of other things happen to the family. There are quite a few cliffhangers, dealing with everything from a broken radiator that floods the house to Vicky's bike accident to the family coming down with the measles. In between, this family has a lot of very intelligent discussions about God, the universe, science and, well, everything. I really wished I had parents or grandparents who would take the time to engage in the deep discussions that the Austins get into with their brood. Best of all, despite the occasional mentions of God and values, and the obvious high intelligence of the whole family, the kids are presented as human, not a bunch of plaster saints. They occasionally misbehave, bicker, have to be reprimanded, and feel like their life is grossly unfair, just like all kids did back then and still do today. Truly a timeless book.

This book was great! I absolutely loved it! It is very true, too. A lot of kids go through what Vicky goes through. I think this was a really well written book with a lot of metaphors... a work of art. 5 stars!