Moi's Reviews > The Young Unicorns: Book Three of The Austin Family Chronicles

One of the things L'Engle does best is carefully intertwine her otherwise disparate tales. I delighted in stumbling across peripheral characters whom I recognized as well-loved protagonists from her other series. The Austins serve as a homey, grounding backdrop for the story of a gifted, troubled former gang member in 1960s New York City. I read and reread this tale as a young adult but was saddened to discover upon picking it up again maybe a year ago that it doesn't age as well as I'd hoped. But L'Engle's descriptions of cozy, functional, imperfect family life stand out, and her treatment of high-church music-liturgical culture resonates.