For a family with four kids, two dogs, assorted cats, and a constant stream of family and friends dropping by, life in the Austin family home has always been remarkably steady and contented. When a family friend suddenly dies in a plane crash, the Austins open their home to an orphaned girl, Maggy Hamilton. The Austin children―Vicky, John, Suzy, and Rob―do their best to be generous and welcoming to Maggy.

Vicky knows she should feel sorry for Maggy, but having sympathy for Maggy is no easy thing. Maggy is moody and spoiled; she breaks toys, wakes people in the middle of the night screaming, discourages homework, and generally causes chaos in the Austin household. How can one small child disrupt a family of six? Will life ever return to normal?

“Meet the Austins” hat mich in meine Kindheit zurück versetzt und die Bücher, die ich in der fünften und sechsten Klasse gerne gelesen habe. Das Buch stammt wie “A Wrinkle in Time” aus der Feder von Madeleine L’Engle, und ist ebenfalls der Auftakt einer ganzen Serie. Im Gegensatz zu “A Wrinkle in Time” ist “Meet the Austins” allerdings keine Genre-Literatur, sondern erzählt die Familiengeschichte der, erraten, Austins.

It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.

„Wild nights are my glory,“ the unearthly stranger told them. „I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I’ll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract.“

A tesseract (in case the reader doesn’t know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L’Engle’s unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O’Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg’s father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.

Mir musste erst der Trailer zu der Disney-Vefilmung von “A Wrinkle in Time” über den Weg laufen um mich daran zu erinnern, dass ich das Buch seit fast zehn Jahren ungelesen bei mir im Schrank stehen hatte. Augenblicklich Besserung gelobend setzte ich den Roman auf meine Liste von Büchern, die ich zeitnah lesen sollte (dass in dem Film Chris Pine mitspielt, ich das Buch aber aus Gründen der Prinzipien gelesen haben wollte bevor ich ins Kino gehe, hatte damit natürlich überhaupt nichts zu tun. *hust*).