Anyone who has read many of Madeleine L'Engle's excellent novels for young people must hanker to know something about her, to find out why beautiful mothers and radiantly warm family life recur in her books, and why her female characters achieve fuller dimension than her male, and how she dares champion the forces of good in these dark times. The chance to know her comes on like a Newfoundland puppy in "A Circle of Quiet," a long, loosely-structured, personal statement of her con...

I have often wished it were not necessary to review a book immediately upon publication. Children's reactions and acceptances are always important and there should be time to be aware of them. The critic's own perspective on a book is often clearer months after it is read. I felt that way about Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. I reviewed it favorably upon publication. Months later the book's extraordinary power began to show itself in the way incidents kept coming to...

Young readers who remember Madeleine L'Engle for her exciting A Wrinkle in Time may enjoy "The Sea Monster," "Summer City," "The Monkey," "The Dragon," "Song of Simeon," and "The Parrot" in [Lines Scribbled on an Envelope]. These poems present a segment of life in a quasi-humorous way sustained by a youthful point of view. They also represent Madeleine L'Engle's marvelous gift for combining dissimilar el...

The cast from the Newbery-award novel, "A Wrinkle in Time" and "A Wind in the Door" returns [in "A Swiftly Tilting Planet"] with the Murry children now grown…. Shivery and elegant twists of plot ensue as Meg and Charles Wallace employ time travel, telepathy, a Welsh rune and other means to prevent annihilation of the universe by a mad dictator. L'Engle's gifts are at their most impressive here. Her ability to draw attention to familiar details o...

A month ago J. D. Salinger told the story of what happened to a sixteen-year-old boy in the three days' interval between his dismissal from a private school and his return to his parents' home in New York's Park Avenue, ill and in a state of mental and physical shock. "Catcher in the Rye" is rapidly climbing toward the top of the best seller lists, and now it seems likely that Madeleine L'Engle's latest novel, which is concerned with two weeks in the life of ...

A generation of adolescent readers has been charmed by the many writing moods of Madeleine L'Engle; perhaps the sense of togetherness in Meet the Austins, the mystery and suspense of A Wrinkle in Time, or the romantic adventure of And Both Were Young. Miss L'Engle's new novel, The Other Side of the Sun, is an adult one, but older adolescent L'Engle fans will welcome a new facet of this fine author's talent. Madeleine L'Engle has a very special way with words. She sh...

Anyone who has traveled with four children, or even less, over thousands of miles, camping nearly every night in a different spot, knows how much can happen. "Adventures" become almost commonplace. Perhaps no one family could have had all the variety of experiences that the Austins had on their journey [in The Moon by Night], but not one of the events is impossible or even unbelievable. From time to time I found myself thinking, "Oh, why didn't they stop there long enough to see ...

Like many a gossip who, in talking about others, chiefly reveals herself, this novel about adolescence ["Camilla Dickinson"] throws its strongest light on adulthood—a state which, if this book is correct, can only be described as a mess. (p. 14) Most of the cast bespeaks hopelessness and futility and generally leaves a bad taste in the mouth. All the characters intrigue, but not all are clearly realized. In two cases the author has resorted to annoying tricks of speech to supplant inade...

Madeleine L'Engle is an avid spectator of life. Her word portraits of personalities she includes in A Circle of Quiet reveal a respectable ability to get into the character of another, feeling about until she hits a responsive nerve. (p. 767) Snatches of A Circle of Quiet keep reoccurring in my memory as I go about the business of daily living. For example, chapters sprinkled throughout the book contain excellent advice for fledgling writers. I find myself explaining how the author uses her journals,...

When does a child cease to be a child and stand in the isolation of an individual? When do parents cease being parents and become unknown human beings? These are the questions, fraught with deeply rooted emotional complications, that Madeleine L'Engle explores in her new novel, "Camilla Dickinson." Camilla, herself, fifteen years old, is the narrator of the story. It is through her eyes, her feelings, her fears and her bewilderment that the sensitive, fragile texture of a girl's ...

The Journey with Jonah abounds with delightful puns and saucy animals that reflect their common characteristics such as the wise old owl and the foolish goose. I am inclined to say that everyone will love The Journey with Jonah because I am so taken with it and because I find it impossible not to pile orchid after orchid upon Newbery Prize winner L'Engle; but experience impels me to moderate that "everyone" in spite of myself. So compelling is the play that students reading it may want ...

[The charm of "The Small Rain"] is its naturalness as a record of childhood and youth…. Miss L'Engle tells the story straightforwardly, without sentimentality, but with quick insight into the keen and contradictory emotions of the years when a girl is struggling to find out what she is and what she wants. In this her picture of the girls at boarding school is notable….

[The Journey with Jonah, a dramatization of the story found in the Old Testament Book of Jonah,] amplifies the humor of the original and retains its basic meaning. Jonah, the somewhat pompous prophet, may be at odds with God and man, but he is not left alone. On every step of his way he is confronted by animal creation. His motives are probed by a pedantic Owl, a silly Goose, and a pert Jay—among others; the Rat family witness his ejection from the ship; and he engages in a conversation with the Whal...

There is enough adventure in "Dragons in the Waters" to make Nancy Drew and her chums squirm: a shipboard murder that could have been committed by any one of the passengers or crew; a kidnapping: an attack by a wild boar; a young boy lost in the Venezuelan jungle…. And much more…. The plot of "Dragons in the Waters" is complex and might be confusing to less able readers. The narrative is an intriguing mixture of contemporary allusions and gothic mystery. But does it...

Madeleine L'Engle is a newcomer and I mention her first novel, The Small Rain, because in it she succeeds in creating the character of a young artist, one of the most difficult assignments in the whole range of writing. This is the young and refreshing story of a musician growing surely with self-dedication in the midst of Bohemian New York, a realm which can so easily be cheapened, sentimentalized, or exaggerated. Her novel is written with good taste and clear understanding, and while she has much t...

Katherine [of "The Small Rain"], despite her quite special environment, seems typical rather than unique. Her heartaches and raptures, her yearning for "someone you can really talk to," her high resolves and black despairs, are nothing but the old achingly familiar process of growing up. And yet, the young (and those who have not forgotten how it feels to be young) should find this a moving story…. "The Small Rain" gives evidence of a fresh new talent.