Meet the Austins Summary
Madeleine L'Engle

Meet the Austins Summary

The Austin family series contains four young adult novels, Meet the Austins, Moon by Night, The Young Unicorns, and A Ring of Endless Light, and two shorter books for younger children, The TwentyFour Days Before Christmas (1964) and The Anti-Muffins (1981). The series concerns a family of six: two parents, two boys, and two girls. Authentic enough to have faults as well as virtues, the Austin children will immediately attract readers. Some critics have complained the family is too good to be true, with its understanding parents and highly intelligent children, but such criticism takes into account neither the issues that the books address nor the realistic events within them.

Dr. and Mrs. Austin are reasonable and understanding, the children are very likable, and the family is close without being constrictive. But the books handle serious concerns, such as the death of a close friend of the family, the disruption...

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