Customer Reviews

PRELUDE

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i loved this book by Madeleine L'Engle and it was the 1st one i ever read. It's shocking that it's out of print. Anyway this book is about a girl named Katherine who's mother had a series of problems during Katherine's childhood causing her to live with her aunt maya. When Katherine final moves in with her mother and learns to be a fine pianist something awful happens and she is sent off to a boarding school. In this boarding school she has only one friend and a piano teacher who really in her talent. Then continues her stuggle. If you are depressed about this book being out of print its ok because the entire thing is the first half of "A Small Rain" and the rest of Katherine's life is continued in the rest.

I have read "The Small Rain", and it's sequel, "A Severed Wasp." I didn't realize that "Prelude" was the first half of "The Small Rain," until I just read it in someone's comment above. I loved both books very much. Katherine's youth is explored in the first, and her old age in the second. It is a bit frustrating to find that you have to "catch-up" on all that has happened between the books, but I believe it took Mrs. L'Engle 20 or more years to write the second. I highly recommend both of these, and all her books for their ability to express kindess, spirituality, and genuine emotion so deeply. She writes stirring stories, whether they are for children or adults.

This is one of Madeleine L'Engle's earliest works (I believe it may even be her first). It's the tale of a young and highly gifted pianist, who is sent off to a boarding school where her talent is anything but appreciated. In fact the school administrators firmly believe they are doing her a favor by forcing her to broaden her interests, and by limiting her practice time and forbidding her access to the piano at other times. There's a good deal of interplay between our protagonist and her family (it's family difficulties that cause boarding school in the first place), and her relationship with her piano teacher. It's a bittersweet look at a time of life that's difficult for many, made more so by circumstance and talent that must have it's way.