I read this book in fifth grade, and I loved it so much. I bought it earlier this spring at Borders (I think it was on sale because it’s newbery honor sticker is the wrong color), though I just picked it up.Vicky Austin goes to her grandfather’s house on Seven Bay Island. Each day, her grandfather only seems to grow weaker from Leukemia. The book begins with the Austin’s family friend Commander Rodney’s funeral. There, she meets her older brother’s friend Adam, who she thinks she likes. She wor

L'Engle seems to achieve that which Stephenie Meyer is, as yet, technically unable: a respectful, plausible narration of square pegs, alienated dreamers, and teens wiser than their years finding authentic connection. L'Engle's form is by no means flawless, but Meyer and others would do well to follow her lead and learn to show their protagonists' extraordinariness, not dictate, begging us to believe.*** my notes *** (vaguely spoilery)Leo represents maternal love: she feels the need to care for h...

4.5 stars Re-read for our readalong discussion on Friday 4/24!------------------------------------------------------------------My favorite L'Engle book ever, about the formative summer when Vicky Austin's grandfather is dying and she meets a young marine biology student who teaches her to swim with dolphins. I'm not sure any other YA author has ever come close to L'Engle's complex and intelligent story-telling with the Austin family, which is secure in its wisdom that everyday life is dramatic

I missed this book growing up, preferring L'Engle's more adventurous fantasies. It's too bad, because I'm sure I would have loved it growing up. I picked this lovely gem of a book up in the library last year in the kids section, during a kind of "pilgrimage" to my local library, where I hadn't been in over ten years. I used to go there every week when I was a kid. I read it in one sitting.It doesn't have the heart-stopping action of A Wrinkle in Time or the fantastic settings of A Wind in the Do...

In my youth I was on a L'engle tear having gone through the "Time" series...however I didn't get the memo that L'engle's writing ministry developed into one catered towards guiding pre-adolescent females through their awkward years.Needless to say, I caught on when I realized that the books really weren't speaking to me like the others were...and I quietly returned this one back to the library and saw that I was the only dude to read the book for the past decade...A good read nonetheless!

Oh! Precious book which dazzles me with joy and beauty every time I read it! I have never imagined (certainly not after my first reading) that I would cry of joy and sorrow for the light, and the beauty and the pain of growing, of maturing, of understanding, of grasping a little of the majesty of living and acknowledging the wonderful pattern that God is so exquisitely knitting. After my first reading I had all kind of mixed feelings I did not appreciate it too much, but now, after my fourth rea...

Yes and definitely, I do very much appreciate that in the fourth of the Austin Family novels, that in the 1981 Newbery Honour winning A Ring of Endless Light Madeleine L’Engle switches her narration once again back to the first person (to Vicky Austin), and that while there most certainly is quite a lot of sadness and pain to be textually encountered since in A Ring of Endless Light aside from Commander Rodney’s death (and other similar tragedies both human and animal based), the Austins cherish...

The title references a 1650 poem by Henry Vaughn, “The World,” that envisions all eternity as “a great ring of pure and endless light,” and urges humankind to choose the divine light instead of the earthly darkness. The title is totally appropriate as we see 15-year-old Vicky Austen struggle between optimism and devastating nihilism.The Austens are spending the summer at Seven Bay Island since Mrs. Austen’s father, Reverend Eaton, is dying of leukemia. Throughout the summer, Vicky witnesses plen...

First of all, the science in A Ring of Endless Light is WAY off - dolphins are vicious little bastards. I laughed out loud when Vicky said that you never hear about dolphins' inhumanity to dolphins. Are you kidding me? Someone spent too much time daydreaming about her Trapper Keeper.That being said, I still love this book. Vicky is wrestling with the problem of evil, particularly in terms of death, and she's also learning about burdens and what a person should or should not ask another person to...

I first read this book as an early teen--I can see now, reading it as an adult, that having read this book (along with all Madeleine L'Engle's other books) at twelve and thirteen clearly had a profound impact on my world view. L'Engle's writing has a depth and profundity that draws on emotions of which most writers only attempt to scratch the surface.I think all developing adolescents should read this book and all its accompanying ones, if only to see that there is more out there than either com...

Vicky Austin’s summer is filled with joy and heartbreak. Her family has come to the Island to stay with her grandfather, who’s dying of leukemia. She has three boys vying for her affections, each of whom has his own demons, all of whom look to Vicky for a kind of salvation. She’s trying to find her place in the world at a time when the support of her family isn’t what it used to be, not because they’ve changed, but because she has. And she is introduced to three dolphins with whom she has an unu...

I had to read Meet the Austins and The Moon by Night, the first two Austin Family novels, in eighth grade. While I didn't like Meet the Austins as it read like a juvenile fiction book, I fell in love with The Moon by Night and the book's heroine, Vicky Austin. I reread the book so many times, the pages are coming out.Surprisingly, I never picked up A Ring of Endless Light until college. My sister read it for school and told me that it was a fellow Vicky Austin novel and was surprised I had not y...

4.5 stars although note to my future self, never re-read this if you are sad because wow, this book packs a punch. I love Vicky and her family though. No one does families as well as L'Engle.Reviewed more in depth here at the YA/MG book battle

Battle is over for this book, at any rate. Before anyone starts throwing stones or even worse missiles, I have to point out that this is not a review, but rather a response. Furthermore, I read this book at the wrong time. Which is NOT code for saying that it's an immature book you could only love if you read it as a child. But really, rather than desiring to avoid abuse, I hate to say why a book that is an abiding favourite for so many friends is one that really didn't work for me. As a child m...

Upon re-read: still one of the best books ever.(mini-review as a follow up to the read along)A Ring of Endless Light is one of my all-time favorite books. I first read it many years ago and when I got the opportunity to re-read it, I was terrified. I worried that even though I had loved this book so many years ago, I wouldn’t feel the same way years later. I was wrong. I feel like I need to bang my head on a wall for ever underestimating this book but there it is. This is one of the best books I...

I love this book! L'Engle is amazing, and her themes provoke thought and emotion. I wish I could write with the same eloquence and depth that she writes with.12/28/15Again, I love this book. It's hard to believe I read it four years ago already, and I didn't realize I was reading it around the same time that I read it the first time. God knew I needed to read this book again. Sometimes, I forget that life is about LIFE, which for me is God, and that means living in the moment but also enjoying a...

Excerpt from my book battle review:I’m sorry. I know a lot of people love A Ring of Endless Light. And I don’t want to spend 500 words talking about all the things I didn’t like about it. But honestly, apart from one single element (“Vicky called me and I came.”), I didn’t like anything about it. It was incredibly depressing, with an added layer of morality that I didn’t care for. And not just depressing like “being a teenager is hard”, but filled with an unrealistic amount of death and drama. I...

A Ring of Endless Light takes what could be a beautiful, poignant book with the most saintly of grandfathers and a reverence for the poetic soul, dries it out, overloads it with sentiment, and then beats it over the head with understanding and well-wishing. And that's my polite impression of it.Honestly, I don't know how anyone can like this book unless they find picture-perfect, saccharine families and neat answers appealing. Vicky is the most understanding and emotionally and psychologically a...

This is all about dolphins, adolescent life, death and regeneration of limbs in dolphins and the possibilities on human.Though the narrative was okay,the character descriptions was alright and the story line is some how muddied but I will give this book 2 stars.