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Madeleine L'Engle

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A Ring of Endless Light: The Austin Family Chronicles, Book 4 Hardcover – May 1 1980

by Madeleine L'Engle (Author)

4.6 298 ratings

Book 4 of 5: Austin Family Series

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In this award-winning young adult series from Madeleine L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time, Vicky Austin experiences the difficulties and joys of growing up.

"This wasn't the first tie that I'd come close to death, but it was the first time I'd been involved in this part of it, this strange, terrible saying goodbye to someone you've loved."

These are Vicky Austin's thoughts as she stands near Commander Rodney's grave while her grandfather, who himself is dying of cancer, recites the funeral service.

Watching his condition deteriorate over that long summer is almost more than she can bear. Then, in the midst of her struggle, she finds herself the center of attention for three young men. Leo, Commander Rodney's son, turns to her as an old friend seeki comfort but longing for romance. Zachary, whose attempted suicide inadvertently cauesd Commander Rodney's death, sees her as the one sane and normal person who can give some meaning ot his life. And Adam, a serious young student working at the nearby marine-biology station, discovers Vicky, his friend's little sister, incipient telepathic powers that can help him with his experiments in dolphin communications.

Vicky finds solace and brief moments of peace in her poetry, but life goes on around her, and the strain intensifies as she confromts matters of love and of death, of dependence and of responsibility, universal concerns that we all must face. The inevitable crisis comes and Vicky must rely on openness, sensitivity, and the love of others to overcome her private grief.

Once again, Madeleine L'Engle has written a story that reveals in the drama of vividly portrayed characters and events the spiritual and moral dimensions of common human experiences.

A Ring of Endless Light is a 1981 Newbery Honor Book.

The Austin Family Chronicles
Meet the Austins (Volume 1)
The Moon by Night (Volume 2)
The Young Unicorns (Volume 3)
A Ring of Endless Light (Volume 4) A Newbery Honor book!
Troubling a Star (Volume 5)

Reading age

12 - 16 years
Book 4 of 5

Austin Family Series
Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Grade level

1 - 7
Lexile measure

810L
Dimensions

13.97 x 2.24 x 21.59 cm
Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Publication date

May 1 1980
ISBN-10

0374362998
ISBN-13

978-0374362997
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Product description

Review

“With customary grace and firm control of an intricate plot, L'Engle has created another irresistible novel about familiar characters, the Austin family. Vicky, 16, narrates the climactic events with Grandfather Eaton on a New England island, where he is living his last days.” ―Publishers Weekly

“L'Engle has the magic storytelling gift that makes it a pleasure to lose yourself in her spell.” ―Newsweek

“L'Engle writes eloquently about death and life with provocative passages that linger in the thoughts of the perceptive.” ―Booklist, Starred Review

About the Author

Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) was the Newbery Medal-winning author of more than 60 books, including the much-loved A Wrinkle in Time. Born in 1918, L'Engle grew up in New York City, Switzerland, South Carolina and Massachusetts. Her father was a reporter and her mother had studied to be a pianist, and their house was always full of musicians and theater people. L'Engle graduated cum laude from Smith College, then returned to New York to work in the theater. While touring with a play, she wrote her first book, The Small Rain, originally published in 1945. She met her future husband, Hugh Franklin, when they both appeared in The Cherry Orchard. Upon becoming Mrs. Franklin, L'Engle gave up the stage in favor of the typewriter. In the years her three children were growing up, she wrote four more novels. Hugh Franklin temporarily retired from the theater, and the family moved to western Connecticut and for ten years ran a general store. Her book Meet the Austins, an American Library Association Notable Children's Book of 1960, was based on this experience. Her science fantasy classic A Wrinkle in Time was awarded the 1963 Newbery Medal. Two companion novels, A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet (a Newbery Honor book), complete what has come to be known as The Time Trilogy, a series that continues to grow in popularity with a new generation of readers. Her 1980 book A Ring of Endless Light won the Newbery Honor. L'Engle passed away in 2007 in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (May 1 1980)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0374362998
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374362997
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 549 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.97 x 2.24 x 21.59 cm

Customer Reviews:
4.6 298 ratings

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Madeleine L'Engle

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Madeleine was born on November 29th, 1918, and spent her formative years in New York City. Instead of her school work, she found that she would much rather be writing stories, poems and journals for herself, which was reflected in her grades (not the best). However, she was not discouraged.

At age 12, she moved to the French Alps with her parents and went to an English boarding school where, thankfully, her passion for writing continued to grow. She flourished during her high school years back in the United States at Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, vacationing with her mother in a rambling old beach cottage on a beautiful stretch of Florida Beach.

She went to Smith College and studied English with some wonderful teachers as she read the classics and continued her own creative writing. She graduated with honors and moved into a Greenwich Village apartment in New York. She worked in the theater, where Equity union pay and a flexible schedule afforded her the time to write! She published her first two novels during these years—A Small Rain and Ilsa—before meeting Hugh Franklin, her future husband, when she was an understudy in Anton Chekov’s The Cherry Orchard. They married during The Joyous Season.

She had a baby girl and kept on writing, eventually moving to Connecticut to raise the family away from the city in a small dairy farm village with more cows than people. They bought a dead general store, and brought it to life for 9 years. They moved back to the city with three children, and Hugh revitalized his professional acting career.

As the years passed and the children grew, Madeleine continued to write and Hugh to act, and they to enjoy each other and life. Madeleine began her association with the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where she was the librarian and maintained an office for more than thirty years. After Hugh’s death in 1986, it was her writing and lecturing that kept her going. She lived through the 20th century and into the 21st and wrote over 60 books. She enjoyed being with her friends, her children, her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren.

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Sandra

Intriguing story!

Reviewed in Canada on April 4, 2018

This was a very intriguing book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It explores the thoughts, the fears, the anxieties and the hopes of youth, as well as the experiments and learnings from working with Dolphins. Young Vicky has to handle the fears of losing her beloved grandfather through death, the interest of three very different young men who want her as a friend and the unusual reaction she receives while communicating with Dolphins. She also has to deal with seeing the pain that her mother and father are going through while they care for an ailing parent, and to deal with her relationship with an older and younger brother and a somewhat jealous sister. There are lots of emotional battles in some well-done story.

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Amazon Customer

I have loved this book since I was 11 years old (16 ...

Reviewed in Canada on December 20, 2015

I have loved this book since I was 11 years old (16 years and counting) and I have read it probably 30 times. To me, it is a classic. So well written, so real. I could always relate to Vicky, even now as a 27-year-old woman. Just love it!

Helpful

Nina M. Osier

L'Engle at her finest!

Reviewed in Canada on September 22, 2003

Vicky Austin knows that this will be her last summer on Seven Bay Island with her beloved grandfather, because the scholarly retired clergyman is dying of a fast-moving form of leukemia. 15-year-old Vicky stands on the dividing line between childhood and adulthood. As a budding poet, she promises to retain childhood's heightened and sometimes painful sensitivities even after she crosses that border. That's a bond she shares with her grandfather, but not with the rest of her loving yet far more scientifically inclined family.
Complicating this already trying time for Vicky are three young men. Leo, a lifelong friend of her family, wants more from her than the companionship and sympathy she is ready to offer him. Zachary, a severely troubled and wealthy youth who was her first real boyfriend, follows her to Seven Bay Island and alternately charms and frightens her with attentions that her family would prefer she didn't accept. And Adam, her older brother John's friend from MIT, assumes an important place in her life when he discovers that Vicky's extraordinary (and unexpected, and unexplained) ability to communicate with dolphins can transform his summer project at the Island's oceanographic research station.
While Vicky's romantic and other feelings for this trio are central to the story, this is not a conventional tale of young love in which the girl's choice of suitor is the whole point. Vicky Austin is a complete person, and not about to treat romance at age 15 as the be-all and end-all of her life so far; nor as the defining influence on her future. Until now she has been something of a misfit, with her physician father and scientifically inclined older brother and younger sister tech-talking over her head. This summer, finally, "dreamy Vicky" who often slips away to write verses comes into her own. Which, as so often happens in real life, can only occur as she is tested by life. And by death, and by her responses to both.
L'Engle at her finest! Although I'm of grandmotherly years now, "A Wrinkle in Time" was among my own girlhood's defining books. I must now go out and find the rest of the Austin books. This writer's works have something to offer any reader, not just youthful ones.
--Nina M. Osier, author of "Love, Jimmy: A Maine Veteran's Longest Battle"

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Nancy E.

Another amazing work of fiction by Madeline

Reviewed in Canada on February 22, 2003

Vicky Austin is almost 16-years-old and her life is rather complicated. She is spending her summer at the beach, a place that many would seem to be paradise. Her grandfather is dying from Leukemia and no one knows how much time he has left. Also for once in her life, Vicky has gained the attention of not only one but three very different boys. One is Leo, an old friend of Vicky who is looking for more than friendship. Another is Zachary, a wild and ambitious teenager. Being around Zachary is a thrill, but sometimes it can be terrifying. And then she meets Adam, a new and intelligent boy with a passion for Marine Biology. When Adam introduces her to the dolphins he is working with she feels a connection with them, a wholeness that she has never experienced before. She can't really understand it but it's almost as if she can speak with them. In a summer where life is anything but simple Vicky must realize who she is and follow her heart to find out who she cares for the most.
This book has a lot of levels to it. On the surface is a story about life and death, romance and loss. Below that is another story about morals and the existence that there is something beyond us, possibly a God. Many people who read this book might be confused because of this. The reason for his is Disney channel recently created a made-for-TV movie based on this book. Now while it wasn't exactly a horrible made-for-TV movie it was a poor interpretation of the book. The book is not at all like the movie. The character of Vicky is a lot different. She is a strong character with insecurities like the rest of us. Strangely enough I found I could really relate to Vicky more than most other characters I read about, except I swear a lot more. This book is one of Madeline L'Engles best known (because of the movie and the Newbury Award) and one of her greatest. I would highly recommend it to younger readers, teenager readers, and some adult readers.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Michael Kelley

The Best Book for Children (and Adults) on Death

Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2023

Verified Purchase

This book, based on a poem by Henry Vaughan, is a wonderful book to teach children the hard subject of death, especially death of loved ones.

Kindle Customer

Great Novel For The Moon By Night Fans

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2015

Verified Purchase

In this novel, two characters from past Austin novels are reintroduced. Three boys are fighting for Vicky's affection through their different attempts at love, and are all in some way or another associated with death as Vicky struggles with her own battles with the emotions that come with the passing of loved ones. Zachary, irresponsible and unpredictable as ever, is grieving the loss of his mother as he turns to Vicky for emotional support. His attempt to end his life leaves him thinking constantly about what he has to live for and who the loving mother figure in his life will be even if they are unwilling. Leo, the boy that Vicky grew up with, has made a comeback. The passing of his father leaves him groping for friendship as he notices the wealth gap between him and his competitor, Zachary. Adam, John's friend from MIT, comes to visit often and involves Vicky on his experiment with dolphins. But he shys away from relationships because of a secret from Portugal that he wishes not to reveal. Vicky meets dolphins that she never would have if it weren't for Adam, and learns that she understands wildlife. As Vicky learns about sickness and sometimes having to let people work out their problems on their own, she grows up a lot in just one summer.

3 people found this helpful

Andrea Monk

One of the best and most underrated YA novels

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2010

Verified Purchase

When most people hear Madeleine L'Engle they think of A Wrinkle in Time. And while that is an exceptionally great novel, A Ring of Endless Light (a Newberry Honor book) is, in my opinion, far superior. The writing is exquisite, the themes subtle yet powerful, and the characters are wonderfully real. It steps delicately to the edge of the fantastic, yet maintains a very realistic sense of the narrator - 15 year old Vicky Austin - with all the trials and tribulations of being a hormonal 15 year old poet navigating her way in the world through life, death, and love. I highly recommend this book to any young girl who is experiencing the death of a loved one. When I read it for the first time I was about 13 and had just lost my mother. This book definitely changed my life, for the better. I don't think you will be disappointed if you give this novel a try.

8 people found this helpful

Melody Klockner

Light overcomes the darkness!

Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

For anyone who is following Vicky Austin and her family, this is a wonderful growing up story which takes Vicky to a new level of maturity in the face of a summer seemingly full of death. The Austins have come to stay on an island with Vicky's grandfather who is dealing with leukemia. Bad penny, Zachary Gray, shows up again. And Vicky spends some spare time working with John's friend Adam on his experiment with communicating with dolphins--which she finds she is surprisingly good at! It is a summer full of heart conflict, but Light will overcome the Darkness!

4 people found this helpful

piers

Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 13, 2021

Verified Purchase

I like the story, like so many reading books it really takes you into a world of your own imagination.

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