And Both Were Young

By: Madeleine L'Engle

Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee

Flip doesn't think shell ever fit in at the Swiss boarding school. 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. Despite her newfound happiness, there are times when Paul seems a stranger to her. And since dating is forbidden except to seniors, their romance 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?

©1948 Madeleine L'Engle (P)2010 Listening Library

Rare gem

I first discovered this book when I was about Flip's age in the school library and have deeply loved it since. Over the last couple decades since then I have re-read it a few times and still have markers in my copy of my favorite parts as a girl. It is beautiful and a flowing, intriguing, intricate, and thoughtful story. My favorite nostalgic book, full of heart and soul!

A realistic story after WWII for two Yong ones

This Holocaust story gives us of today a window into the aftermath for the young and the countries and people of the time. We should not forget there pain!

Drawn into the story

Loved it! Yes, I would recommend this book for those who needs to believe in themselves .

Wonderful

I listened to this book because I love L’Engle’s work only to find that it connects to my fascination with books about Holocaust survivors and their experiences.

A long time favorite

Would you consider the audio edition of And Both Were Young to be better than the print version?

Absolutely! The reader really brings the story to life!

What was one of the most memorable moments of And Both Were Young?

Christmas at school.

Have you listened to any of Ann Marie Lee’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, not yet.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It brought back very vivid memories

Any additional comments?

I must have read this book 20 times when I was in junior high school!

Love it

Read it every year. Found this book back in middle school and loved it then found it again as an adult and ever since I read it at least once a year sometimes multiple times. Just love the story and the way they find them self I lament that there isn’t another book to show where they are as adults but I love to think that they stayed together forever even if not romantically but as true friends the way their relationship started

Classic coming of age story

I have read a number of Madeleine L’Engle books over the last year or so. Originally I wanted to re-read the Wrinkle in Time series. Which led me to the last two books in the quintet that I had not read previously.

I also ran across Camilla, which along with And Both Were Young, are her two best known books writing in the late 1940s. They are both classic coming of age books. More about what it means to grow up and become and adult than about sexual discovery (which is what coming of age books have come to mean recently.)

Both books dealt with very serious issues and I was surprised that young adult literature of the time allowed. Camilla included issues of divorce, suicide, affairs and more.

And Both Were Young is set in the last 1940s in Switzerland. Philippa (Flip) is sent to boarding school there. Her mother recently died in a car accident and her father is an artist that is going around the world to document children that have been affected by war.

The effects of World War II is clearly a major theme of the book. Girls were on both sides of the war. Many were bombed both in London and Germany. There are children with false teeth and with leg braces as a result of injuries during the war.

There is a note at the beginning of the book from L’Engle’s granddaughter that says that part of the book were removed because they were thought to be too difficult for children, but in 1983 the original text was put back in. I do not know which parts were removed, but my guess is that it was concerning concentration camps, death in the camps by gassing and some other horrors of war. Other young adult oriented Holocaust books like Night by Elie Wiesel were not published until the mid-1950s and 1960s.

One of the interesting points in the book is the role of being an introvert. It is never specifically brought up, but Flip does not relate to others well in large groups and is desperate to find time to be by herself and think. I wish the point was developed a bit differently. Flip becomes more comfortable with school as she becomes more comfortable with herself. When she begins to like school and be more comfortable around friends the discussion of the desire for alone time and being tongue tied in large groups seems to disappear. This part of the story might have the effect of seeing introversion as disappearing with self confidence, which is not the case. But probably is not unusual in young adult literature, especially from the 1940s.

And Both Were Young is oriented to a slightly younger audience than Camilla. I would be comfortable with teens around 12-13 reading it with some adult discussion and older teens reading it on their own. There is a chaste romance that is a significant part of the book. Both Camilla and And Both Were Young have romance with boys that are broken in some way. And in both cases the romance serves to fix the boys (and to a lesser extent the girls). While I do think that relationships cause us to grow, this can feed into the idea that fixing people is part of dating. I am not sure this is a great message for tween and young teen girls.

On the whole I really liked this book and my concerns are more about the reader than the book itself. I think it was courageous to write a book with these themes so early after World War II.

Loved It!

This was my favorite book as a teenager and forty years on it is still as magical and evocative as it was then.

Disappointing.

What did you like best about And Both Were Young? What did you like least?

I like the Switzerland setting. I wasn't a fan of this book, over all.