After a year in New York City and a summer with her grandfather, Vicky Austin returns to the rural connecticut village she grew up in-- and feels totally out of place. then she meets Adam Eddington's Great-aunt serena, who reminds her of her beloved grandfather, and she begins to find a comfortable, if not exciting, routine to her days. At Christmas, Serena gives Vicky a trip to Antarctica, to visit Adam. Vicky can't believe her luck. But the trip is not what Vicky imagined it would be. First of all, she doesnt know where she stands with Adam. He's pulled back, saying they are just friends. But weren't they more than that, Vicky thinks. And Vicky's fellow passengers are not what they seem or they are more than she knows. Finally, even Aunt Serena's motives are suspect, as Vicky discovers a journal that belonged to Adam's famous uncle who disappeared many years earlier. As Vicky becomes more and more caught up in a mystery involving drugs, nuclear waste, and international espionage, she discovers that her assumptions about the world are hopelessly naive and that life, hers included, is as fragile as the ecosystem of Antarctica, the world's most remote continent. Grade 6 Up-In this fourth book about the Austin family, Vicky is almost 16. Adam Eddington, her budding love interest in A Ring of Endless Light (Dell, 1981), is headed for a marine-biology internship in Antarctica. His wealthy great-aunt is so taken with Vicky that she gives the young woman a trip there for her birthday. However, politics and international wheeling and dealing quickly turn the opportunity of a lifetime into a fight for survival as Vicky becomes a pawn in the struggles that surround her. Readers know that trouble is in store from the onset, as each chapter begins with an italicized paragraph of her terrified musings while she waits to be rescued from the iceberg upon which she is stranded. Most of the intrigue is centered on the tiny South American country of Vespugia, which will be familiar to readers of A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Farrar, 1978). There is no fantasy here, though-only human foibles such as greed and waste as the environmentalists who want to protect this continent and the various interest groups, who prefer to use it for personal gain, squabble. The narrative is interspersed with the poetry Vicky often uses to express her feelings, and with lively descriptions of the wildlife and habitats of Antarctica. The mystery itself is fairly transparent, even predictable. Those YAs who are accustomed to more contemporary realism in their novels may find the Austins, with their wholesome, intellectual lifestyle and their thoughtful, well-connected friends, as close to fantasy as one can get while remaining on Earth. Hopefully, though, they'll be able to suspend their disbelief long enough to enjoy Vicky's adventure. Susan L. Rogers, Chestnut Hill Academy, PA Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Gr. 7-10. L'Engle's new novel, which returns to the Austin family, is both sweetly old-fashioned and contemporary. Vicki Austin is a remarkably calm 16-year-old whose life revolves largely around her family and around Serena, a wealthy, elderly neighbor who is the great-aunt of a college boy whom Vicki has a crush on. Things change, however, when Vicki's shipped off to Antarctica, via a troubled South American republic, and encounters a Baltic prince looking for love (and hard currency) and a puzzle involving nuclear waste and Antarctic development. L'Engle doesn't convincingly account for Vicki being so different from other teenagers, but she's a master at conveying a sense that something unusual is going on. Her story doesn't actually contain angels, but it's full of references to the spiritual level of existence. It also contains some New Age singing to the seals and a little old-fashioned worry about romance. Not one of L'Engle's best, but certainly a book that will find readers. Mary Harris Veeder From Madeleine L'Engle, Newbery medalist and author of the beloved classic, A Wrinkle in Time, comes this sensitive, well-written story of a young girl who unwittingly becomes involved in high-risk political and ecological intrigue, set against the starkly beautiful background of Antarctica. After a year spent in New York City with her family, Vicky Austin is bored with the quiet Connecticut village where she grew up. School has little savor, especially since her boyfriend, Adam has gone off, first to college and then to Antarctica on a research grant. Vicky whiles away the time writing in her journal and visiting Adam's great aunt Serena, a lively old woman who has taken a shine to her. Then Aunt Serena surprises Vicky by giving her a cruise through Antarctica as a birthday present. Vicky is thrilled. But abruptly Adam's letters- -previously warm and affectionate--grow cryptic and cool. Then Vicky begins to receive warnings in the form of anonymous notes and postcards. She's not sure which of her fellow passengers on the Ar