Novel: Meet the Austins

Overview
Meet the Austins introduces Vicky Austin, a keen-eyed young narrator, and the lively household that shapes her early adolescence. Set in a contemporary small-town American environment, the novel sketches a year in the life of a close family whose daily routines and small adventures reveal deeper questions about identity, responsibility and belief. The tone is warm, affectionate and quietly observant, with humor and tenderness woven through ordinary moments.
Through a series of domestic episodes and visits, readers meet the members of the Austin family and the circle of neighbors and friends who touch their lives. The novel is less about a single dramatic plot than about the cumulative effect of small events, conversations, misunderstandings, neighborhood dramas, and imaginative play, that build a vivid portrait of childhood and family bonds.

Plot
The narrative follows Vicky as she watches and participates in the rhythms of her family's life. Family interactions, meals, chores, teasing, and earnest discussions, form the backbone of the story, and several external events ripple through the household, testing patience, loyalty and faith. Vicky's observations move from playful skirmishes to more reflective encounters that prompt her to question what she values and how she relates to those she loves.
Encounters with visitors and neighbors bring fresh perspectives into the Austin home, stirring both comic misunderstandings and tender reconciliations. Everyday crises, school troubles, sibling rivalry, and the challenge of doing what is right when it is hard, are handled with a blend of realism and gentle moral inquiry. By the end, Vicky has begun to understand herself more clearly, and the family emerges with relationships deepened rather than dissolved by the pressures they face.

Themes
Central themes include the nature of family, the formation of conscience, and the interplay between imagination and faith. The Austins model a form of Christian faith that is practical, questioning and lived out in acts of kindness and responsibility rather than sermonizing. L'Engle uses the family's interactions to explore how faith can inform daily decisions and how moral growth often arrives in small increments rather than dramatic revelations.
Imaginative play and literature are presented as vital ways for children to make sense of the world. Vicky's inner life, her capacity for wonder, her habit of storytelling, and her moral curiosity, frames much of the novel's insight. The book also examines the complexity of growing up: the simultaneous desire for independence and the comfort of familial belonging, the awkwardness of changing friendships, and the slow, sometimes painful learning of empathy.

Characters and Voice
Vicky's narrative voice is candid, thoughtful and gently ironic; she notices details adults often miss and interprets them with emotional intelligence. The family members, parents who are humane and fallible, siblings who bruise and forgive, are drawn with affectionate realism rather than idealization. Secondary characters from the town bring contrast and occasional tension, helping to illuminate the Austins' strengths and weaknesses.
L'Engle's prose blends plainspoken dialogue with flashes of vivid description, creating a domestic world that feels lived-in and true. The novel's charm comes from its quiet authority: the belief that ordinary life contains both hardship and wonder, and that the process of growing up is as much about learning to listen and care as it is about acquiring knowledge.