[.ca] Meet the Austins (ISBN 044095777X)

From Amazon.com:
Reading award-winning author Madeleine L'Engle's Meet the Austins is like taking a vacation with the warm, compassionate Austins--an extraordinary family who takes a little girl named Maggy Hamilton under its wing when her father is killed in a plane accident. Adjusting to a new household member is not easy, as the 12-year-old narrator, Vicky, will testify. Maggy is spoiled, "ubiquitous," laughs in a "horrid, screechy way," and appears to be a child of an entirely different species from the thoughtful, intelligent, kind, yet not cloyingly so, Austin kids. Still, Vicky and her other siblings (Rob, Suzy, and John) grit their collective teeth and struggle to understand her, which becomes easier and easier as the loving family seems to rub off on the newly orphaned Maggy. The Austins are beyond question a charming family, but their path is by no means rock-free: Vicky sneaks off to a friend's house and severely injures herself in a bike accident, they all get the measles, John is beat up after his guest sermon in church, and they almost lose little Rob. Despite ordinary family setbacks, there's no use pretending this is a run-of-the-mill family. When Vicky is sick, her older brother, John, comes into her room and soothes her with a discussion of the solar system, our atomic composition, and the relativity of size. Family dinner-table talk includes the ethics of meat eating, and a chat with Grandfather ends up with a discussion of whether Einstein believed in God. As in all of L'Engle's novels, she asks the big questions: What is the meaning of life, and how does death fit into that? Are there different kinds of intelligence? What happens when you remove a screw from a radiator? This strangely comforting novel, first published in 1960, is an ALA Notable Book, and was followed by four other books featuring the Austin Family: The Moon by Night, The Young Unicorns, A Ring of Endless Light (a Newbery Honor Book), and Troubling a Star. (Ages 9 to 12) --Karin Snelson

fabulous:
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!!!! :-)

Not only for children:
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.

Not Good at All...:
I first started readed L'Engle's books because I saw they were making a movie on the Disney Channel based on "A Ring of Endless Light." I read that book and I fell in love with Vicky and the Austin family. When I learned that there were other books about them I immediately checked them out from the library. The first one I read was this one. I was VERY disappointed. It lacked a central message or point and seemed quite disorganized. I put it down one day, almost done with the thing and never picked it back up except to return it to the library. "A Ring of Endless Light" was so smooth and perfect. I guess it was because L'Engle had become a much better writer by the time she wrote that one...

Good, but not THAT good:
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.

A book for adults as well as for kids!:
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.