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How can Camilla learn to be an adult when her parents are acting like children?
Gr 7 Up—In Madeleine L'Engle's coming-of-age story (Farrar Straus, 2009) set shortly after the end of World War II, Camilla Dickinson, 15, has lived a relatively carefree, yet sheltered life and is content to spend her days going to school, doing homework, and strolling along the streets of New York City with her best friend, Luisa. Camilla's world begins to change when she starts dating Luisa's brother, Frank, causing a huge rift in their friendship. In a short time, her entire world flips upside down. Camilla's mother, craving the love of her undemonstrative husband, begins an affair with Jacques, and Camilla witnesses them in a passionate kiss. Rejection from Camilla, the subsequent loss of Jacques' affection, and further indifference from her husband causes her mother to slit her wrists. Thus begins the struggle for the family to rebuild their lives, albeit in an odd way, with Camilla's mother and father moving to Italy and Camilla attending a boarding school. Ann Marie Lee perfectly captures Camilla's flutter-love excitement, curiosity, and disappointment, while also bringing to life a paraplegic veteran's sarcasm and disillusionment and a married couple's bitterness. The author tenderly tackles the subjects of religion, suicide, first love, and more. A must-have for all L'Engle collections.—Cheryl Preisendorfer, Twinsburg City Schools, OH
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Ellen Hughes
reviewed Camilla on January 01, 2010
Camilla
I took a little sidetrek in my goal of reading all of the Austin family books. "Camilla" fits in nicely with them, because it has similar themes about growing up, realizing a person's autonomy, religion, the debate over what makes a person matter, and of course lots of discussion about life and death.
One more motif I picked up from this reading is L'Engle's use of cruel adults. In "Camilla" it was the family's maid and the geography teacher who denied having ignored Camilla's pleas to go to the bathroom. In "Meet the Austins" it was the woman who told Maggie that she was silly to believe her parents had gone to another world, and then the ill-humored aunt. In "A Wrinkle in Time" it was the principal at Meg's school. For someone who worked to find the shades in human character, L'Engle seems to believe in real cruelty, too. I find that interesting.
It's a good book, and it as a good experience to compare what I understand now to what I understood when I first read it at eleven years old.
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