An Acceptable Time
- 358
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“An Acceptable Time” brings Madeleine L’Engle’s “Time Quintet” to a reflective close, centred on Polly O’Keefe. Her story echoes the earlier adventures of Meg Murry and Calvin O’Keefe, her parents, and L’Engle threads philosophy and faith through it; even the title comes from a psalm. Some readers find this fifth volume weaker than the earlier ones and loosely plotted.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
An Acceptable Time is a 1989 young adult science fiction novel by American author Madeleine L'Engle, the last of her books to feature Polyhymnia O'Keefe, better known as Poly or Polly. Marketed as part of the author's Time Quintet, An Acceptable Time connects Polly's adventures with those of her parents, Meg Murry and Calvin O'Keefe, which take place a generation earlier. The book's title is taken from Psalm 69:13, "But as for me, my prayer is to You, O Lord, at an acceptable time."
Reading order · Polly O'Keefe
Full order & progress →- The Arm of the StarfishStart hereThe Arm of the Starfish–Not ranked yet
- Dragons in the WatersDragons in the Waters–Not ranked yet
- A House Like a LotusA House Like a Lotus–Not ranked yet
- An Acceptable TimeThis book
7.67.6 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.3 across 80 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 35% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Young adult average of 7.8. That is how 7.6 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.7 | 9 | 11% |
| Hardcover | 7.2 | 71 | 89% |
Frequently asked
What age is An Acceptable Time for?
An Acceptable Time sits on the Young adult shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 13 and up. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 358 pages — shorter than 68% of the ranked books in Young adult.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Young adult — with scores between 7.6 and 7.9, closest to this book.
