Young Unicorns [School & Library Binding]

Madeleine L'Engle (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

The Austins are trying to settle into their new life in New York City, but their once close-knit family is pulling away from each other. Their father spends long hours alone in his study working on the research project that brought the family to the city. John is away at college. Rob is making friends with people in the neighborhood: newspaper vendors, dog walkers, even the local rabbi. Suzy is blossoming into a vivacious young woman. And Vicky has become closer to Emily Gregory, a blind and brilliant young musician, than to her sister Suzy.
     With the Austins going in different directions, they don’t notice that something sinister is going on in their neighborhood—and it’s centered around them. A mysterious genie appears before Rob and Emily. A stranger approaches Vicky in the park and calls her by name. Members of a local gang are following their father. The entire Austin family is in danger. If they don’t start telling each other what’s going on, someone just might get killed.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A first-rate suspense story.”—The Washington Post Book World

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

They had been standing around the lamp, looking at Emily holding it in her strong fingers, rubbing it. Certainly none of them, not even Rob, expected to hear a sepulchral voice behind them.

"You called me?"

They swung around... --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• School & Library Binding
• Publisher: Tandem Library (October 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881037362
• ISBN-13: 978-0881037364
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,496,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Madeleine L'Engle, the popular author of many books for children and adults, has interspersed her writing and teaching career with raising three children, maintaining an apartment in New York and a farmhouse of charming confusion which is called "Crosswicks."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fabulous book containing universal truths, July 26, 2000

By 

Stephanie (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Young Unicorns (Mass Market Paperback)

A Wrinkle in Time has always been my favorite book, and I was hesistant to read L'Engle's other stories because I had grown so attatched to the Murrays/O'Keefe's. This book was my final Austin family novel, and I must say, if by far my favorite.

This novel, while having the classic L'Engle good-triumphing ending, was full of the darker side of life. Like Arm of the Starfish, this book made me very aware that there is evil in the world. At yet, at the same time, this evil can be combatted through love and trust. It's an incredibly powerful story, with amazing twists and characters you won't soon forget.

Another reason I simply adore this book is because it is very clear that Chronos and Kairos are crossing here. Canon Tallis, Mr. Theo, Emily, Dave . . . they all reappear (or have appeared) in other books. It's wonderful to have that kind of connection with a character.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for themselves in a world where black and white are sometimes purple.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Mystery, January 3, 2003

By 

Erika Sorocco (Southern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Young Unicorns (Mass Market Paperback)

In "The Young Unicorns", we meet up with the Austin family, who are now living in New York City, as Dr. Austin is working on a research project. We also meet 2 new L'Engle characters. Dave, who used to be in a gang called the Alphabats, and Emily, a blind girl who at times stays with the Austins. Dave now reads Emily her homework, as she can't read it herself. When bizarre things begin happening to the Austin family, and a bishop begins acting strangely, the Austin children begin to worry, and decide, with the help of Dave and Emily, to solve the mystery. But what they don't realize at the time, is that getting involved may cost them their lives.

We all know that L'Engle writes amazing coming-of-age novels, but, after reading "The Young Unicorns", I now know that she also writes amazing mystery/suspense/sci-fi novels. This was an amazingly interesting book, and readers, whether previous L'Engle fans or not, will relish in her character descriptions, and adventure. A must have book.

Erika Sorocco

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, insightful;last reader superficial,misunderstood, November 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Young Unicorns (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book with many unexpected twists throughout the plot. It brings up morality in all facets: the church, science, and the family. It addresses many modern-day issues and shows how things are not always what they initially seem. I was very upset by the last review. Madeleine L'Engle is not saying that a family without a mother staying home and doing the cooking is a bad family. Many of her books have mothers who do work, and I think that her message is more that a family is what you make of it, whether there is one parent or two, one child or many children, whether you live in the city or the country. Also, L'Engle writes about Caucasions because that is what she knows. She is not being rascist. I think her messages are universal, and different skin color doesn't change your humanness or your susceptibility to danger or sinfulness or vulnerability. The writer of that review was being more rascist than L'Engle, because he/she was implying that there ARE differences between races, and there are not. It's not as though L'Engle beats it into the readers' heads that she writes about caucasions; it's just what she does, and it is not part of the messages she is trying to convey through her writing. That reader was looking at the most superficial and unimportant aspect of the book. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in something that addresses issues larger than who's dating whom and what's on TV. It is a book that will stay on the edge of your mind for months, and that you will want to reread again and again to learn more insight.