And Both Were Young

by Madeleine L'Engle, Léna Roy (Introduction)

Flip doesn't think she'll ever fit in at the Swiss boarding school chosen by her father's girl friend. Besides being homesick for her father and Connecticut, she isn't sophisticated like the other girls, and discussions about boys leave her tongue-tied. Her happiest times are spent apart from the others, sketching or wandering in the mountains.

But the day she's out walking alone and meets a French boy, Paul, things change for Flip. As their relationship grows, so does her self-confidence. Yet despite her newfound happiness, there are times when Paul seems a stranger to her. And since dating is forbidden except for seniors, their friendship must remain a secret. With so many new feelings and obstacles to overcome in her present, can Flip help Paul to confront his troubled past and find a future?

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction, Boarding School, Coming Of Age, Audiobook

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young adult fiction, including A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels: A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. Her works reflect both her Christian faith and her strong interest in modern science.

Reviews

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dammit, I love Flip. I love Madeleine L'Engle, I love the idea of boarding schools, Switzerland, and French boys and girls snowed into a storm of romance, adventure, and heartbreaking loneliness. (I've also only realized that I've always had a strange attraction for the widowed father and only daughter stories. This one absolutely fills that niche.)

I've reread this book countless times now, and each read only makes me happier and sentimental for the gorgeous but grounding tales of Madeleine L'Engle. Some may say And Both Were Young is not her best, but for those readers who can appreciate L'Engle's work for its simplistic beauty, it certainly will prove satisfying and complete.

I'd also like to comment that since I was 12, this book has made me want a winter wedding by candlelight in a chapel in the middle of the woods. Just fyi, in case someone out there shares the same fantasy.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Underrated, underappreciated. I mean, it didn't 'hit my buttons,' and I still loved it. I think because it's original. How many stories with a widowed father *don't* have him getting married off? How many stories of a lonely girl have her favorite teacher *scolding* her for self-absorption?* How many stories of boarding schools are there in which almost all the girls are *nice*? How many stories talk about Lost Children, and the lives of the Germans as they rejoin the international community after WWII, and adults who are real people?

Even the buttons/tropes are special. It's boarding school on the continent, not in England. And our hero(ine) saves the boy from his emotional torment *and* from a bad guy. And the romance has subtle but serious kissing, not clumsy curiosity. Etc.

And it's beautifully written. Unfortunately I was too absorbed to mark it up with book darts, but let me tell you that you must at least read the first page. L'Engle knows how to start a book, with "sunlight that was as bright and sudden as bugles."

I don't know if I would have enjoyed this when I was a teen. I hope that I would have. Had I, I might now be a better person, a braver & friendlier person. And probably a better reader, too.

Five stars might seem high, but I do recommend it to just about everybody.

*I don't mean 19th c. didactic stories, I mean literature for young people.

[Christine PNW · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been doing a L'Engle read for the last year or so & decided to read this standalone in connection with a genre reading challenge - February is romance month. I previously read this book back when I was in junior high/early high school. It was originally published in 1949, which makes it one of her very early novels (it appears this was 3rd), and I probably read it around 1978.

It is quite dated, but that doesn't mean it isn't also enjoyable. It is set in a Swiss boarding school, which was one of the things that fascinated me when I read it as a public school student growing up in Boise, Idaho. A Swiss boarding school seemed like one of the most exotic, interesting things ever and I frankly envied Philippa for what I perceived as a wonderful opportunity.

This time around, I enjoyed the fact that Flip was obviously an introvert, and I was interested in how L'Engle approached her introversion. Being an introvert in a boarding school would be tough - it's not a place where solitude is easily accessed. Being an introvert myself, I felt for Flip and understood her hunger to spend time alone, and didn't like the way the various characters approached her need for quiet. No one really seemed to understand, much less respect, the fact that a young woman might need to spend time alone to recharge her batteries. This rings really true, even today. Flip didn't always handle herself well, but her peers also really didn't understand her, and they seemed to expect that she would change to suit their expectations, rather than suiting their expectations to her character, which was frustrating.

The romance is extremely chaste, with some mild kissing between Flip and Paul. I also grew up skiing, which might have been another reason that this book made such an impression on me as a young woman, since a ski meet represented a major plot point in the book.

There is apparently an updated edition of the book which restored some of L'Engle's original manuscript which had been cut by her publishers because it either referenced death or was "sexually suggestive." Set in Europe in 1946, many of the various characters are dealing with the aftermath of WWII and the Jewish genocide. More than one character has family that was murdered in the concentration camps. It is sort of astonishing to me that, given the time and the subject matter, it was considered appropriate to sanitize that topic. And, having read it, I can't actually imagine how the words "sexually suggestive" could've been applied to this book. All of the adult characters appear to be celibate, and Paul and Flip share a couple of kisses.

I don't think it has worn quite as well as some of L'Engle's other work, but I still enjoyed it. Philippa Hunter apparently makes a cameo appearance in one of the later works, A Severed Wasp, published in 1983.

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite L’Engle but still worth reading. About a teenage girl whose mother has died who gets sent to a Swiss boarding school and her adjustment to her new life: her relationships with a new boy, her teachers & fellow students at the school, her father and his girlfriend. I love L’Engle’s flawed but gifted girl characters. A lot here that rang true, especially how an adolescent girl might feel when a father dates after the mother dies.

Important to read the reissue with Madeleine L’Engle’s poignant note about how when she originally published this book, writing about death and sex had to be toned down, and how with the edition reissued/published in the 1980s she was able to make it more as she’d originally envisioned.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

And Both Were Young is good as boarding school stories go and has a sweet, quiet romance, but I don't think the part of the plot which has to do with Paul's history works very well with the rest of it. I mean, the wartime amnesia thing is fine and interesting, but not the mysterious stranger part. Anyway, I do like the convincing way in which Flip grows from shyness to confidence during the course of the book, and of course I pretty much always like boarding school stories.

[celine]

charming little wintery romp. fascinating not so much for the story itself but to see what ya romance looked like in 1949; very, very different than today’s, that’s for sure!

[Joy (joyous reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

My experience with this book is not very pleasant. I mean, it wasn’t bad. No, not at all. I suppose it can be compared to when one is reading the back of a Raisin Bran box of cereal while shovelling spoonfuls of them in their mouth: it’s good for you but in the end, it’s no choco puffs. The thing is, I feel like I’ve been gipped. The blurb at the back of this book advertises FORBIDDEN ROMANCE in big, bold letters. And if you know me, you know that’s a huge bait. Besides, it’s MADELEINE L’ENGLE! How could you now want to read this?! Well, I did. And I’m sorry to say, it was a tad disappointing.

The writing is very odd. I suppose it reflects the era from whence the novel took place. The dialogues are very clinical, and some too formal. But again, that probably had more to do with the way people spoke at the time (post-World War 1).

This is the story of a young girl sent to a boarding school in Switzerland. Flip’s father, being a traveling artist, did not want to take Flip around the world with him. So Eunice, his companion, suggested she goes to a boarding school. He’s also made it a goal in life to search for all the missing kids displaced during the war. What I don’t get is why his travels brought him to China when the war was centred in Europe.

Eunice, the woman who wants to replace Flip’s mother in her father’s life, plays the quintessential evil step mother role: very haughty, expects too much of Flip, and very critical of Flip. And I guess the reason why Flip was so against the boarding school to begin with.

In the boarding school, we see Flip be her awkward self. The girls call her “Pill” instead of Flip, and we see her stumble haplessly in every social situation. With the help of her Art teacher and her nephew, Paul, she starts blossoming on her own. We see her adapt and accept her lot in life. But while I enjoyed seeing her come of age, I was still a little confused about how old the kids were.

There was also supposed to be a romance between Paul and Flip, but to be honest, they were better off as siblings. I really wish they didn’t packaged this book as having a forbidden romance because of two things: one, there wasn’t any. And second, it was an awkward romance.

What I enjoyed about this book was the depicted life on a Swiss boarding school. Though Flip had to go through a version of bullying (aka, hazing) at first, in time, the girls eventually warmed up to her. I especially liked the shown camaraderie during Christmas time. It was gorgeously described. It makes me want to stay at home on Christmas and create our own family tradition.

Over all, I almost feel like it’s sacrilege to say I didn’t quite enjoy this book. I can compare it to someone listening to an aria in a monotone voice. Lifeless novel, packaged as a romance that didn’t exist.

[Nadine Keels · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've finished another reading of this 1949 young adult novel, my third time since I first read it at twelve. (Mind you, I've only read the 1983 edition, which includes some original story elements, like Flip's grief over her mother's death, that the author once had to leave out, due to their taboo nature for young people's fiction in the '40s.) I remembered certain parts of this postwar story but forgot major aspects of the plot twice, so it's been both a familiar but fresh reread for me each time.

Even given Paul's role though, I wouldn't call this novel a romance. The story focuses on Flip's overall experiences at boarding school, not mostly or solely her romantic ones.

Granted, it's funny, as I do remember my adolescent self thinking of Paul as so mature and "dreamy," and Flip's interaction with him seemed like such a grown-up thing. But as my adult self read about these two teens once again, it was like, "Oh. Gee. And both were young."

Still, besides the aspect of young love, I can see why I've been so drawn by this rather peculiar story every time. It's the shy, nonathletic, unpopular heroine. A different, sensitive girl. An artist. Someone who struggles and has to try all the harder to make it in a social environment with her classmates, so her every triumph in school—whether major or minor—is that much sweeter.

It's uplifting to watch how Flip learns and grows, and hey. The novel's handling of Christmas, my absolute favorite holiday, is pretty wonderful. My nostalgic self is rather sure I'll remember much more about the story after this third time.

[Stephanie A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost read this book 10 years ago, then saw it was an "updated" version from the 1949 original because in 1949, "one did not broach such topics as sex and death, even in subtle ways." I immediately pitched a fit because that censorship of unpleasantness sounds like precisely what I love about midcentury teen novels, and wrote it off unless and until I could find an original copy.

However, with Interlibrary Loan shut down, I realized it was one of my few options for reading a physical, new-to-me vintage book that wasn't centered on animals, and I had a craving for just that so I requested it from the local library. I'm so glad I did.

This is such a wonderfully niche book, which plunged me straight into a strict (like "can't keep books in your room, sleepwear must be approved and not too skimpy in design, only French will be spoken here" strict) Swiss boarding school setting. For the few happy hours I spent slowly and carefully absorbing every page, I felt like I was living her life, and I loved every hint of 1940s detail I could get.

I love that she sneaks out on a walk and stumbles upon an abandoned "chateau," which lit up my brain with mental pictures -- I wish that setting had been even more prominent. I loved her chats with the kind and mostly-understanding Madame Perceval, whose backstory is super tragic, and I love that she's an introvert. I don't love the weird hazing segment that involves a gauntlet of spanking, "innoculation" a.k.a. being poked with a needle to draw blood, and being blindfolded and tied to a tree in the forest, but for the most part this book was close to perfect.

I would still really like to read the original version to see the changes, but the biggest thing that ruffled my feathers (besides the hazing) was Flip's incessant reference to Eunice "lusting" after her father, and now I understand what the allure must have been if you'd read the original and then got a chance to read an updated version -- or rather, the "restored" version of the original manuscript. I have always been a sucker for deleted scenes, and so you rarely get them for books.

In conclusion: The only other L'Engle books I've read are the first two about the Austins, both of which I liked, but I think this is my favorite so far.

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was apparently quite daring when it was originally published in the 1940s, so much that it had to be bowdlerized. But it seems awfully tame to me. I read the original (non-bowdlerized) version and find myself wondering just what they felt they needed to cut out. The whole "mysterious stranger lurking around" subplot seemed pretty truncated to me.

Nevertheless, this was a good book. It does a good job portraying the claustrophobic, almost incestuous boarding school atmosphere (I would have HATED it) and it's also interesting to see Philippa mature from a painfully shy, sulky and rather whiny girl to a stronger, more independent and mature person as the months go on. And all the topical stuff of the post-war period was well integrated into the story.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

What girl doesn't fantasize about going to a Swiss boarding school, having a dashing artist father, a mysterious and beautiful mentor/teacher, and a dark, brooding forest boy to fall in love with?

[Suzanne Elyse · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I had read this as a 14 year old I probably would have obsessively reread it multiple times. Boarding school in the Swiss mountains with snobby classmates? Abandoned chalet? Mysterious boy? Protagonist learning how to function properly in society? Simple and sweet but a good little story.

I very much loved the A Wrinkle in Time series in middle school and can’t believe I didn’t branch out into L’Engle’s other works! Better late than never.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this may have been the last Madeleine L'Engle book I read (for the first time) as a teenager. And for some reason it holds a sort of distinction in my head because of that fact. I, like most other readers I know who love her books, got in on the whole thing with A Wrinkle in Time, moving on to the other Murry and O'Keefe family books and then the Austin family series and so on from there. I must have been somewhere around ten or so when I first read the Time series and by the time I got through all the others and worked my way around to her standalones I was a bit older. Although one of my very favorite things about her body of young adult work is that there are so many connections between them. And while AND BOTH WERE YOUNG is probably one of the most standalone of them all, for the discerning reader there is a very lovely, very oblique reference to its main character in L'Engle's much later novel A Severed Wasp. Interestingly, I don't think I ever realized just how old this book is. Originally published in 1949, it was actually her first young adult novel. Incidentally, my copy features the old 1983 cover. But a lovely new hardback edition was just released on Tuesday and, as it is one of my very favorite of L'Engle's books, I wanted to highlight it here while I convince my local bookshop to order a copy into the store.

Phillipa Hunter, better known as Flip (oh, how much I love this), never wanted to leave her father and her Connecticut home to come to a Swiss boarding school. That was her father's new "friend" Eunice's bright idea. Since her mother passed away, Flip has grown even closer to her artist father and the idea of leaving him and attending a foreign school among a host of strange other girls terrifies her. But her father is bound for China to draw and Eunice is traveling with him instead of Flip. And so Flip tries to hide her trembling and put on a brave face for her father's sake. But boarding school is just as alien and difficult as she feared. Though the girls hail from all over the globe, Flip finds it hard to fit in. Long-limbed and lacking in coordination, she watches her fellow students from the sidelines and prays for the year to be up soon. The one bright spot in the gloom is her art teacher Percy--a young woman who seems to understand Flip's solitude and need to filter her kaleidoscopic emotions through some sort of creative act. Then one day out exploring further than she ought to be above the school grounds, Flip runs into a young man named Paul. Paul lives with his father in a small cottage not far from the school. These two dispossessed young teenagers form a friendship and, in the process, find the kind of acceptance and understanding in each other that they've been searching for.

Flip is the kind of foot-in-her-mouth, arms-and-legs-everywhere protagonist that I connected with instantly as a teen reader. I loved her for her haplessness and the way that she just kept on stumbling through her outer coating of awkward to a place where she could voice her thoughts and experiences so that someone else could see them and appreciate her for who she was. In my eyes, that made her admirable--that drive to keep going despite the many misconceptions and deliberate slights of those around her. That was what was so hard for me at that age, and I like to think I drew a little strength from watching her try and fail and try again and succeed. It helped that her interactions with Percy were so poignant, particularly in the wake of having lost her mother and being without her father. The other girls at the school were especially well done as well. At first you think they will be mere stereotypical characterizations, the way Flip almost expects them to be, but they each emerge from their initial roles to play an important part in Flip's development. And then there's Paul. Lovely Paul. He has long reminded me of Jeff Greene from A Solitary Blue and a kinder, less destructive Zachary Grey. Yes. You will fall in love with Paul just as much as Flip does. And the even more gratifying thing is that the story is not just about Flip's journey to self-discovery, but Paul's as well. It's not all the way he fills her needs, but how she fills his as he has an unusually dark past that he is rather successfully steadfastly refusing to deal with until Flip comes along. This is an eternally sweet and moving book. Like so many of L'Engle's books, I turn to this one when I want to be reminded that the world and the people in it can be beautiful despite the darkness.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This made me want to go to a Swiss boarding school with stick-up-the-ass rules and a bunch of kind of snobby girls.

[Fade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming, with great voice, but marred by a few peculiar plot twists and at least one utterly implausible plot convenience. Not one of L'Engle's best, but still quite worth the read.

[Anna Smithberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very sweet. Definitely reads like book from early in an author's career, but still worthwhile.

[Bryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this during my teenage years and had the sense that I had liked it, but remembered nothing about it. Originally published in 1949, it is very much a post-war novel; Flip goes to a European boarding school in part because her artist father is travelling the globe to work on a book about the Lost Children (those who were separated from their families during the war), and while as an American she wasn't directly in the conflict, most of the other girls she meets carry the weight of the war in one way or another. All of this was lost on me when I read it before, but with more historical context I appreciate this part of the story very much; it is not only Flip who has to put her life back together after a tragedy, and watching her grow out of her self-centredness and realise the sufferings of those around her was very, very satisfying. I was very worried at the beginning that this was going to be a NLOG story about wonderful artistic Flip who is so much better, but she gets soundly scolded for going around with that attitude and the book is very, very aware of the humanity of all of its characters.

And Paul -- well, I did not want to say too much about him above, but of course he is one of the Lost Children that Flip's dad is hoping to document in his work, and his PTSD and dissociative memory loss spoke hugely to me in my younger days, although of course I did not remember that until I reached that part of the book. I appreciated that his story had weight but was not misery tourism, that inasmuch as Flip saves him, it is in the real way, that companionship and kindness can help someone save themselves, and that everything is not magically all right at the end -- he has remembered, he can grieve, but he has a long path to walk to come out of the trauma.

Also, a special nod to Erna -- even with all the historical context I now have, her being German did not initially hold the tension for me it must have for readers in 1949. I liked that her family issues are around her mother being pro-Nazi and her father not being, that she lost both her brothers in the war, that she is able to reconnect with her father by the end -- and she wants to be a doctor!

No saints, no sinners, just people doing what they can do, trying to recover from extraordinary circumstances.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexpected

This book was recommended to me and I read it - not really having any background on it. I started reading and couldn’t stop until I was done! This post-WWII book was thoughtful and interesting, along with a few “jump” scenes and it all came to an end too quickly. One of the themes I will be mulling over for the next little while is about belonging and how our actions and reactions to people around us really are based on our own experiences as well as our intentions, which sometimes we have to work hard on. I don’t know if I explained that well, but that is my takeaway.

[Heidi Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My goal is to read all Maeleine L'Engle's books this year and this was a great first choice! It's been awhile since Wrinkle in Time!

[Chachic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted here.

I'm so glad they decided to re-issue this one with a new cover and that I didn't have to hunt down an out of print copy. I love the new cover too, I like how the pink stands out against all that snow and how it portrays Flip and Paul taking a walk. And Both Were Young is similar to Camilla in the sense that it's a quiet sort of novel. However, there's more to look forward to in the former and I enjoyed reading it more than the latter. Even though I'm an outgoing person, I could relate to how Flip had a hard time fitting in at her Swiss boarding school. Language isn't a problem because she's fluent in French and all the girls are required to speak that. She just doesn't get along with the girls in her class and even her roommates. I love it when Flip said that she's lonely but she's never alone. I have a feeling that if I ever went to boarding school, I'd still have a hard time like Flip did especially since I've never shared a room with anyone before and I've never been athletic (which is a huge factor in Flip's school). Girls can be mean without knowing that they're doing it and I guess that's what Flip had to deal with. Good thing she finds a friend in Paul, another loner that she meets while she's out for a walk. Also, Flip finds happiness in observing the beauty in her surroundings and trying to capture that in her artwork.

This is a very sweet novel and I was smiling when I finished reading it. At only 256 pages, it's a quick read that you can finish in one sitting. And Both Were Young reminded me of old school novels for girls like Little Women maybe because it's set in a different time and yet I could still feel for the characters. I was rooting for Flip right from the start and it made me happy watching her gradually adapt and become more comfortable around her classmates. She started out hating the school and counting down the days until her father can get her away from the place but eventually makes friends with the other girls and even her art teacher. I also enjoyed the setting, Switzerland seems like such a beautiful place based on Flip's descriptions. How I wish I could go there someday and maybe even see snow for the first time. There are a lot of things to like in this book: Flip's close relationship with her father, the friendship and subtle romance between Flip and Paul, the effect of the war in the characters and how some of them have tragic pasts but the book never became too heavy. I highly recommend it to YA fans, it's a nice break from all the contemporary and paranormal reads out there.

[Moi · Rating 3 out of 5]

a lovely little story of a shy, awkward american girl navigating adolescence in a swiss bording school not long after the close of world war ii. roughly based on the childhood of madeleine l'engle, who, like philippa hunter in this book, was dumped at school without warning and against her will and spent months pining for her parents, unsuccessfully navigating the foreign environment and tormented by her inability to forge meaningful relationships with the girls around her.

i'm a sucker for bording school stories, for awkward school children with rich interior lives, and for cultural exploration—most especially a sort of hyperintellectual american-in-europe-ness—and some of the period-rich detail was fabulous (scheduled fifteen-minute baths, three times a week! mandatory ski lessons! latin and italian and french, but ostensibly no trigonometry! comportment demerits for insufficiently straight hair parts! students referred to by assigned number, not names! only senior girls permitted to socialize with boys! the nicknames [Flip. Glo.]! the casually tolerated bullying! the permadrinking of hot cocoa, heated over a stove! wet wool! polyglot americains!).

the book falters a few places when it too abruptly shifts tone or inexplicably raises the stakes, only to drop them again a few pages later (for a chapter or so, what has been a sweet, melancholy portrait of adolescence becomes a crime thriller, which was sudden and weird and overly quickly smoothed over—a fairly big misstep, i think). l'engle doesn't completely resist the impulse to create too sweet and perfect a happy ending, but in the end she leaves just enough loose threads hanging to restore a pleasing sense of authenticity that makes Flip's triumphs all the sweeter.

all in all, a mostly sweet, good read.

[kell_xavi · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a lot of this book that I liked, but also many parts I didn’t like. I was part of Flip’s world and way of thinking from the beginning, and many aspects of her character—her seriousness, not understanding jokes, wanting to be alone, intuitive intelligence, difficulty with change, emotional depth and sensitivity—read as autistic traits I know in myself. From my perspective, certain shifts in her emotions and social situation seemed disingenuous. I was hurt by her peers’ name-calling, useless advice, shunning of Flip and nagging her for being odd. Madame Percival’s advice, to not take the teasing seriously, was inconsiderate and implies a problem in Philippa’s way of seeing the world rather than in the insistence of others that she act like them; I never liked Percy because of this personal blame. The arc of the book seems to agree with her, too, by suggesting that trying to get along with people will make a person happy, and while Flip’s comfort did increase, people’s understanding of her remained sorely lacking.

I love Paul, he’s a sweetheart and the kind of quiet, patient, caring person who makes sense as a friend to Philippa. L’Engle adds some unbelievable drama and miraculous recovery into the mix of his story that I didn’t like, as it makes easy pleasure of a complicated trauma.

The writing of both characters is fantastic, but the follow-through is lacking in honesty and commitment, in my opinion. The struggles that form the engaging core of the narrative blow away and leave little in their wake. I was pleased with the ending, but so much fell short in the lead-up to it.

[Deborah Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a wonderful story, set shortly after World War II.

Philippa Hunter, a timid, artistic teenager, must attend a Swiss boarding school while her father, a professional painter, travels Europe. Philippa ("Flip" to her family) knows this year is going to be horrible. She's never been able to make friends – she's awkward both socially and physically, more so than ever thanks to a kneecap shattered in the car accident that killed her mother the year before. She's always clung to her family, and now she's going to be on her own for the first time in her life.

Spoiler alert: The girl who's convinced she has no courage at all finds enough to perform a truly heroic act for the sake of someone she cares about. The unpopular girl becomes one of the best-liked kids in her class, not by getting a spiffy new haircut and attitude but by sharing her artistic gifts. The klutz finds a sport she can enjoy and excel in. The motherless girl who's never talked to a boy in her life finds friendship and more in a young man who teaches her that being able to remember a lost loved one is a precious gift.

The prose here isn't as luminous as that in L'Engle's Camilla, but there's also no horrifying sexism. The love story makes you want to cheer. And the dialogue is terrifically funny. Also, Flip's relationship with a particular teacher reminds me a great deal of some scenes in Jane Eyre.

If you like the sound of a good old-fashioned young adult novel that stands up perfectly to the test of time, read this book.

[Amy Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been reading several of L'engle's lesser known novels over the past few months and I really enjoyed this one. It isn't her best, but the language she uses to describe the beauty of the Alps is so lovely and poetic. This is a bildungsroman story of Phillipa, or Flip as her family calls her, as she learns to navigate life at boarding school and work on her emotional development, physical fitness, and artistic abilities, all while trying to cope with the death of her mother, being apart from her father for the first time, and struggling to fit in with the other students while still maintaining her identity and principals. The setting for this novel seems somewhat autobiographical from L'engle's own younger years at a boarding school in Europe.

[Monica Edinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I would have given it five stars when I read it over and over and over when I was around twelve. (I even tried to copy out the library copy, but gave up after a few chapters. In those times and place, I didn't think you could buy books. Living in East Lansing, Michigan circa 1964, you couldn't very easily.)

[Payal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely divine!
L'engle did Switzerland justice and there was some amazing character building. I adored the friendship between Paul & Flip. . . It was the stuff legends are made of. :)
This is one book that's gonna stay with me.
And I don't care that it's summer. I wanna get me some hot chocolate and go stargaze!

[sameera]

after reading the synopsis, i thought this was a low-stakes romeo and juliet. these bittersweet/unhappy romances have encompassed all the media i’ve consumed for the last while as lately i’ve become a glutton for pain. although, this book could have done without the romance. it was perfectly fine being a slice of life as the romance was mild. i’d mark this entire book as “lukewarm” come to think of it. the most interesting part was the post-war aspect. don’t see that part of history talked about often in relation to any war really. but, it wasn’t talked about much and we focused more on the school. which didn’t make sense to me because it wasn’t like she was actually trying to get an education. why did she care so much about the teachers and following rules. i was confused about what would happen if she disobeyed because her dad was paying for the school and it wasn’t like residential school where she might “mysteriously” go missing. i was waiting for her to just runaway. like, what was the worst thing that would happen? i don’t imagine much.

i was never able to conclude whether she was twelve or sixteen. it was weird.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have only read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle which was one of my favs as a child. I read this for a challenge for my book group, a book set in Switzerland. I really liked this story. Written in 1949 and set in a boring school in Switzerland. We meet Philippa or Flip as she likes to be called. She feels she doesn't fit in with the other girls and ventures out beyond the school grounds. Flip meets Paul and their friendship begins. It is a sweet story very reminiscent of young adult stories I read as a pre-teen. Perfect book to unwind from the holidays with!

[Liralen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this book when I was younger and am pleased to find that it stands up to a reread—stands up to a listen, even, and I've never been one much for audiobooks. Some of it's a little dated, as you might expect (I don't think contemporary YA heroines are so ready to be scolded by their teachers for feeling left out), but I love it for tackling complicated subjects and not having unnecessary drama thrown in by 'mean girls' and for overall feeling like with a few tweaks it could be contemporary and any of these characters could more or less come to life.

[ella luoma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is AMAZING. I love Flip so much. You can really see her growth as a character throughout this book. I also love Paul, his whole background with the memory loss thing is incredibly interesting to me. Their romance, oh my god, their romance is so cute. But, without being cheesy? HOW COULD I FORGET?? The descriptions. The descriptions in this book are beautiful. This book is perfect for any time of year, too. It has such a cozy feeling in general. I absolutely love it.