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I love all the early L'Engle but I bet your favorite part is Suzy's Charlotte's Web phase.

Constance, now it is but when I was 9 and into adulthood it wasn't really. So many parts are my favorite parts!!!

And Both Were Young is my favorite but I really like this one and The Young Unicorns.

I love The Young Unicorns too! However, this is the one I come back to for comfort reads. I like all of the Austin and Murray/O'Keefe books.

I have this copy. Blue cover published by square fish. Last chapter is called visit to the stables. Does one version have an extra chapter did you say ?

Hilary, Do you mean this edition?: Meet the Austins?

That and most editions since this 1960 edition have a chapter right before The Visit to the Stables called The Anti-Muffins.

This 1960 edition, Meet the Austins is missing that chapter and I didn't know it until I was an adult.

Yes, do have the chapter called the anti muffins. How odd, I wonder why this was missed out from some editions !

It's missing only from the original 1060 edition, I think. So for years I read my 1960 copy and never knew that the original publisher refused to allow that chapter.

I think I didn't know about it until 2007 and now also have an edition that includes it.

Not sure why it was left out. Fight, race, socioeconomic, ???

Some who read the original book like it that way but I like the extra chapter, especially since it's the way the author wrote it and wanted it published. Too big a gap in the year without it is another reason.

When are you and your daughter going to read it, Hilary?

When I was a child, except for the corporal punishment and the church/religion in it, they were my ideal family. This was in the early 1960s.

Really love books about family life, yes have to view it through eyes of that time, corporal punishment etc. Those things aside looks like the sort of book we love. We have just started Mistress Masham's Repose from the library, might read this next but tempted to save for holiday.

When is your holiday? And how long will it be?

This is a GREAT family story.

We are going to a remote part of Brittany in France which we have been to several years running but keep going back to as it is so remote and beautiful. Even during school holidays you can sometimes be the only ones on a beach. A very magical place, turquoise water and rockpools full of sea creatures. My children are into body boarding and sea kayaking so we spend every day on the beach with a picnic and books, nothing could be better-but you need some okay weather ! Especially since we camp. This is for two weeks at the beginning of August.

Do you have any holidays planned ? And have you got any planned holiday reading ?

Sounds lovely!!!

No holidays planned though I hope to get away at the end of September/beginning of October. No plans yet.

I'll keep my eyes open for when you read this.

We've read the first couple of chapters and both really enjoying this story. Some great characters. Could tell from the first few pages it's going to be good. I don't know why but we have both always enjoyed reading about children behaving badly ! Do you know where abouts in America this story is set ? Sounds beautiful. Will look out for more from this author.

It's never specified specifically, but they live somewhere in New England, in the northeast part of the U.S. Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut. I'd guess Vermont or New Hampshire or possibly Massachusetts.

So glad you love it. Misbehaving children? You'll love this book. I adore, absolutely adore Vicky's voice. L'Engle has written a lot of good books with girls ages 12-17 and all their voices are wonderful.

P.S. I'm so excited that you're finally reading this!!! I hope that both of you end up loving it when you're through reading.

I love your review, Lisa. I don't know this book, but I certainly know the era. I would love to find some of my old grade school books and read through them again.

Christine wrote: "I love your review, Lisa. I don't know this book, but I certainly know the era. I would love to find some of my old grade school books and read through them again."

Christine, This book has never been off my top 10 list. That's saying a lot.

It's not perfect. I don't like the corporal punishment or even the religion, but otherwise this was the family I wanted. :-) I wish my review was better. I haven't even tried to write a really great review. I love the book too much to try. Ditto with A Wrinkle in Time.

We will look those places up on the map, sounds like a lovely place. America is amazing for it's geographical diversity.

Which other books by this author would you recommend?

Hilary, Most of these books are in series so you might want to read them in order.

But some of my favorite Madeleine L'Engle books are, in general order of loving them:

A Wrinkle in Time

Meet the Austins

The Young Unicorns

The Arm of the Starfish

Camilla (standalone, I think)

And Both Were Young (standalone, I think)

but really all of them. AWIT and MTA are huge faves of mine.

Camilla and And Both Were Young are standalones, pretty much, which is nice. Of course, when I first read MTA and AWIT they were also both standalone books at the time. At the time we didn't know they'd be series.

One nice thing, and you can look up biographical info on the author, a lot of what happens in her books are based on her own growing up, and that's fun.

And yes the U.S. has great diversity, in many ways. I'd guess Vermont or New Hampshire, circa 1959 or so. Maybe other Austin fans will weigh in.

Oh, also A Ring of Endless Light. Etc.

But if you're going to read on, and the Austins becomes scifi also, I'd personally recommend reading them in order. I still like these first two books best!!! Camilla is also excellent. And I like And Both Were Young too; with that one make sure to get the "newer" edition to get it the way L'Engle wanted it.

Thanks Lisa, it's great when you find a new author you love who has done lots of books.

Hilary wrote: "Thanks Lisa, it's great when you find a new author you love who has done lots of books."

Hilary, It definitely is!

Hilary, You got me curious. I looked it up. Might be right or wrong, but according to this it's Connecticut.

"Places in The Works of Madeleine L'Engle - Austin Family Series

Austin Family Series

Thornhill, Connecticut - the village near which the Austins live in most of the books. The Austin home is akin to the Murry farmhouse and to Crosswicks in size, age and environs; for example, all three have a "star-watching rock" out back. The Austin house is outside Thornhill, at the end of a dirt road that intersects the "old Boston Post Road". The Austins have an old barn, in which Vicky's brother John works on building a mock-up of a space suit. Dr. Austin sees patients a few evenings a week in his office at one end of the house, which has its own entrance. A short drive from the Austin house is Hawk Mountain (apparently a fictionalized version of Mohawk Mountain near Cornwall, Connecticut), another place the family goes to talk and look at stars. The nearby town is Clovenford, where Dr. Austin works at the regional hospital. The state in which Thornhill is located is not initially given, but in The Moon by Night John Austin tells Zachary Gray that the family is from Connecticut. L'Engle and her family, the Franklins, lived in a similar Connecticut locale when Meet the Austins was written. In a 1995 introduction to the Austin family paperbacks, L'Engle states that "Indeed, the Austins do a great many things that my family did, including living in a small dairy farm village." L'Engle also mentions Clovenford in a fictional incident in A Circle of Quiet (p. 87).
Seven Bay Island - a fictional island about two day's drive from Thornhill, home of Reverend Eaton, Vicky's maternal grandfather, and of Leo Rodney. The exact state is not given, but L'Engle describes is as be "an island off the New England coast". Appears in Meet the Austins and The Moon by Night, and is the setting of A Ring of Endless Light. Seven Bay is reached by ferry, and is said to be the third and last stop on the ferry's outbound route.
Vespugia - the fictional country in South America, first mentioned in A Swiftly Tilting Planet, is visited by Vicky Austin in Troubling a Star, en route to Antarctica. It is shown as having at least one step pyramid. More important to the book and the L'Engle corpus, Vespugia by the time Vicky arrives is no longer governed by El Zarco (Madoc Branzillo), the benign leader who replaced evil "Mad Dog" through the efforts of Charles Wallace. Instead, General Guedder (a descendant of the malevolent Gedder from A Swiftly Tilting Planet) has established a totalitarian regime, funded in part by international trade in illegal drugs. Guedder's Vespugia hopes to gain power in the world community by controlling and exploiting as much of Antarctica as possible. The name references the explorer Amerigo Vespucci, after whom the American continents were named. It is evidently a small country, "very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter" located between Chile and Argentina, who have been "nibbling" at Vespugia's borders for centuries. The Spanish Inquisition was once powerful there, torturing and killing the native Indians and destroying native religious sites and artifacts.
Eddington Point, Antarctica - the fictional location of LeNoir Station, a small scientific research station staffed primarily by Americans in Troubling a Star. Eddington Point was named after Adam Eddington's uncle and namesake, a marine biologist who was murdered in Antarctica. The younger Adam is stationed there in Troubling a Star, but is mysteriously absent when Vicky arrives.

Read more about this topic: Places In The Works Of Madeleine L'Engle"

Thanks for the info, will look up Connecticut. We have a lovely old wooden jigsaw that's pieces are cut into the shapes of the US states, Finty said it would be good to get it out and see where the Austins live. Does this mean that there was a particular house in reality that the author based the families house on ? Really enjoying the book,

Hilary, I don't think a specific house, no, but the author based their experiences on her experiences. They're in western Connecticut, not near the Atlantic ocean. On a map look up Cornwall and Mohawk Mountain. In that general vicinity, apparently, and probably a lot less built up nearly 6 decades ago when the book was written. I got mixed up re Vermont/New Hampsine because think there is a Hawk Mountain around there. Also, I didn't know southern New England states could have as severe winters as northern New England states.

I'm glad that you're liking the book!

Do you think places in America are named after places in England because of geographical similarities? For example is Cornwall US like Cornwall UK, rocky beaches, windy, hilly and no trees ?

We love all the family detail. Obviously it was the accepted thing at the time but how odd the spanking was seen as part of a loving families discipline, and from such a young age.

Finty started high school yesterday so haven't had the amount of reading time we have enjoyed in the holidays but lovely to read this
together each night.

Places are definitely named after English places but not for their terrain. Most likely by immigrants who came from those areas.

And I was being dumb. Of course Connecticut would have harsh winters. They're to the north of New York and New Jersey and they can have bad winter weather.

I hate the corporal punishment. In the U.S. at that time toddlers were routinely spanked. Not always hard spanked. So typical I guess but I wish it wasn't there. There is no corporal punishment in the Murray family in A Wrinkle in Time, so ???

I love the family detail too.

That's so exciting that your daughter started high school. I hope that she loves it.

Just as New England was named for England, people who'd emigrated from England to those group of states. Sort of weird they didn't make up brand new names or keep the Native Americans' names for places, given how badly they'd wanted to get away, but many places in the U.S. are named for places and people. In my area a lot of streets and places are named for the Spanish, Portuguese, Mexican, etc. conquerers who decimated the Native American people. Oh, not great.

That's interesting that it was named after where people were from rather than similarities in terrain. The latter would make more sense!

Yes corporal punishment is awful. And so shocking for such young children. It's interesting it's not used in Wrinkle in time. Very common when I was young. I can remember being encouraged to smack ( English equivalent of spank ) my dolls and thinking even at a very young age this wasn't a nice thing to do.

And it's been now proven to cause great damage to mental health. No surprise there.

Lisa wrote: "Just as New England was named for England, people who'd emigrated from England to those group of states. Sort of weird they didn't make up brand new names or keep the Native Americans' names for pl..."

Yes the native American names would be a lot more appropriate.

Hilary, In my area some names are reverting back which I love. And in my progressive city a long time ago kids and schools stopped honoring Columbus Day and the same holiday is known as Indiginous People's Day.