Madeleine L'Engle

Moon by Night Madeleine L'Engle

In The Moon by Night, we find the Austin children - Vicky, John, Suzy, and Rob - unhappy at the prospect of leaving their beloved Connecticut house and moving into an apartment in New York City. In order to cushion the change, the Austin parents decide to take the whole family on a trip to California to visit Uncle Douglas and Aunt Elena. They'll drive out to California, camping along the way, and avoid hotels as much as possible. There is a great deal of care spent getting just the right equipment for the trip, and off the family starts. It is a marvelous trip - different, exciting, fun. But the trip also brings problems to everyone in the family, and especially to Vicky when she meets Zachary. He's a troubled and troubling boy who, against the wishes of her family, attaches himself to Vicky. How Vicky meets the challenges of the trip and of her interest in Zachary and in another boy, Andy, who becomes Zachary's rival, make up the body of this warmly appealing story of family life.