Rachel
Member
Can someone give me some insight into her books; they are recommended for reading in more than one spot on the AO free reading list. However, I'm not familiar with her works or name.
Samples: "The Four Story Mistake", "Then there were Five" and "The Saturdays"
Thanks, RAchel
Hi Rachel!
There's also "A Spider Web for Two". Our son and I have read through all of these books a number of times and have enjoyed them very much. They are about a family - 4 kids (2 boys and 2 girls), their father, and the housekeeper who has been taking care of the kids since the youngest was tiny. They are set during the 40's and are a great opportunity to learn about that time period with your kids. In some ways they remind me of movies that were made about that time period - the ones with Judy Garland where they were always putting on a show in the barn - as the kids do some "big" things. This also gave us the opportunity to talk about reality versus entertainment and why entertainment was so very important during the war, etc.
Our son really enjoyed the books. I think he was about 8 or 9 when we got them. We'd read them over and over. They are well written and very imaginative.
Hope that helps!
Linda
Bookworm
Member
I love, love, love these books! The Saturdays may be on my list as a personal favorite. We all read them, like Linda some of us read them more than once. :-) To me they were very inspiring in developing individual talents in children--each of the children has a "talent". They are a bit similar to Edith Nesbit's Bastable stories, except the children have real accomplishments which they enjoy. They are beautifully written.
We also have a number of other Enright books in the house, like the Gone Away Lake books and Thimble Summer, but by far our favorites are the Melendy books.
We love these books too. I read them aloud to my crew (ages 13, 12, 8, 7, 5) last year and they all loved them. We actually just got our first puppy this weekend and named him Isaac after the dog in the book (and also because it means laughter : ).
They are very well written, good family books.
DawnD
Member
We are on the last one of the Melendy's - "And then There Were Five". We have loved them all. We loved Gone Away Lake and Return to Gone Away too! She has great stories.
Bookworm
Member
Actually, Dawn, Spiderweb for Two is also a Melendy book, to be read after And Then There Were Five.
Rachel
Member
Thanks everybody! This was far more positive than I expected. Now, I feel more confident about using these books for reading aloud or free reading.
Rachel
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