Meet the Austins

Meet the Austins by Madeleine L'Engle, 1960 Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

     When their honorary uncle and his co-pilot die in a plane crash, the Austins take in the co-pilot's orphaned daughter, Maggy Hamilton. Maggy is spoiled rotten and causes chaos in the Austin household. Vicky, her older brother John, younger sister Suzy, and little brother Rob each are both the victim of Maggy's antics and the recipient of her lightning-quick affectionate outbursts.
     The story follows the incidents that transform Maggy and the Austin children, especially Vicky, during her time with the family. Maggy favors Suzy with attention further straining the relationship between Vicky and her sister. As the stories continue twelve-year-old Vicky becomes more aware of her actions and their consequences, just as Maggy comes to find her place in the Austin home.
     Unlike many of the other Austin Family stories, Meet the Austins is episodic and jumps from one point in time to another telling anecdotes as life changes for the Austin family. The younger characters relate better to younger readers focusing on older elementary and middle school readers.

The Life of Pi

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, 2001 Knopf Canada

     Piscine Molitor Patel was named after a swimming pool in France. When his schoolmates make a joke of it Piscine becomes Pi. His father owned a zoo in India, but when the political situation in India becomes too unpredictable Pi and his family board a ship to Canada.
     Only a few days out of port the ship encounters a storm and an accident in the boiler room breaks the ship apart. Pi manages to survive in one of the ship's lifeboats. It isn't until the next morning that Pi realizes his companions are a tiger, a hyena, an orangutan, and a zebra.
     Somehow the boy manages to cross the Pacific Ocean in the rowboat with the animals, even taming the tiger, named Richard Parker. He survives on minimal knowledge about survival, persistence, and trial and error. The survival supplies in the boat don't seem like much, but they become the line between life and death.
     Before he washes up on the shores of Central America, Pi has some stunning adventures. He meets another castaway, discovers an island that eats living matter, and tames a wild tiger. When they reach Mexico Japanese officials interview Pi and he tells his story. When they are skeptical Pi repeats the story replacing the orangutan with his mother, the hyena with the ship's cook and the zebra with a sailor.
     The fantasy Martel illustrates so vividly allows the reader to imagine that the forces of nature Pi faces are more than just the delusions of a dehydrated mind. Though there is an understandable explanation for the fiction, related at the very end of the book, the elaborate tale describes life more completely. The imagery of Pi's struggle with Richard Parker and against nature describes any individual's struggle with the forces of their life.
      The story reminds us that no matter how difficult life becomes, at least we aren't in a twelve foot lifeboat with a ravenous tiger. Life of Pi is directed at an older readership, one that can understand how reality and fantasy can be equally true.

Austenland

Austenland by Shannon Hale, 2007 Bloomsbury

     Jane Hayes is a single thirty-something with a closet fascination with Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. When her great-aunt comes to visit and discovers Jane's secret she decides to help Jane through the stage. When Aunt Carolyn dies several months later, Jane discovers she's inherited a trip to the extremely secretive Pembroke Park.
     Pembroke Park is a vacation in the year 1816. Jane meets two women living through the fantasy with her, and a few gentlemen to pose as the women's Darcy. Yet the obvious actors don't seem to interest Miss Jane Erstwhile, she is drawn to the gardener Martin. The quick fling serves to prove that Jane can't swear off men entirely--they're much too much fun. But Martin doesn't appreciate that Jane isn't like the other guests and looking for something to make her stay worthwhile: he dumps her.
     While she mopes about her luck with men, another man catches her eye. Mr. Nobly is the most Darcy-like of all the men at Pembroke and once Jane decides to immerse herself in the experience they seem to draw closer. Life begins to follow Austen's plot lines and Jane begins to have more and more fun in Regency England, even to the point of the Grand Ball and an expected proposal.
     Jane surprises everyone, even herself, when she turns down the gentleman. It is the turning point and the moment when Modern Jane's spunk meets Regency  Jane's composure. The new Jane looks forward to her next relationship and as she leaves Pembroke for home, she has a chance to fall head-over-heels for a true gentleman.
     When the Modern Miss travels back to Regency England, Jane is living every Austen reader's fantasy. Yet she knows that something is off and the world she is visiting, while enjoyable and full of fascination, isn't the one she belongs in. Jane transforms from a self-conscious worrier to a confident and poised lady, but the transformation extends beyond her habits to her attitudes.
     Readers can relate to Jane's experiences in the modern dating world, but she becomes something more when she returns from her journey into the past. Austenland is aimed at high school readers, but reaches to older readers, still fascinated by their own experiences with Jane Austen.

Boston Jane: An Adventure

Boston Jane: An Adventure by Jennifer L. Holm, 2001 Random House

     Jane Peck is an impeccable young lady from 1846 Philadelphia. She has been trained at one of the most respected ladies academies in the city. But her widowed father has taught her to use her mind, and to speak it. When the man she has idolized since childhood travels to the wild west of Shoalwater Bay on Washington's coast, Jane follows.
     William Brandt is nowhere to be found when she arrives, but Jane believes his proposal and stays. After several run-ins with the native population, she is given the nickname 'Boston Jane' as a reminder of her citified ways.
     Jane clings to the mannerisms she expects her betrothed to cherish in her, but as she spends more time in Shoalwater Bay, Jane discovers her Bostonian behaviors will not do her much good in the backwoods. When William returns he is stunned by Jane and how much she has changed.
     The rebellious young woman learns to when curb her instincts and when to revert to her wild-child days. Despite the grueling work she put in to transform into a lady, when life requires her to drop the stringent standards Jane holds herself to she does what needs to be done.