My friend and I are always talking about books our kids might like. This conversation usually turns hilariously to books that we read as tweens and teens. Titles like “Jeff’s New Girl”, “Couples: Change of Hearts,” and “Getting Experienced.” That last book wasn’t about what it sounds like it should be about. Did our parents have any idea what we were reading???? These teenage, angsty, middle and high school crush books certainly occupied valuable real estate on my bookshelf. While every child of the 80s probably needed to read some of those books, I actually did have more lofty childhood reading goals. Like this series which I could not remember the name of. So I texted my friend:
Me: Did you ever read that book about this family of kids with no mother who live in the city – maybe NYC or Boston -and then they moved to the country?????
Her:
Me: might have been London
Her:
Me: It’s really old
Her:
Me: They had a housekeeper that helped raise them
Her:
Me: I think there was a handyman
Her: Ummmmmm. No
I don’t know how she puts up with these ridiculous texts filled with almost no info. Clearly she ignores them or she has a life and doesn’t have time for my antics.
Anyway…..our reminiscing about the books of our childhood sparked Throwback Thursday where I will feature a book that I loved as a kid and that I am now forcing encouraging my kids to read.
First up is the series I was texting my friend about. Which I still couldn’t remember the name of even with Google. Enter my mom. I was at her house one weekend and she was trying to get me to take all my childhood memorabilia home with me……on the plane. I am not nostalgic or sentimental and I really just wanted to throw it away. She wanted me to take my “E” pillow. I didn’t want it. She wanted me to take my ballerina music box. I didn’t want it. She wanted me to go through a box of dusty books. I didn’t want to. I was all sunshine and rainbows. Sorry mom! But I did actually go through the box of books and lo and behold I found the series I had been texting my friend about! Mother knows best.
I absolutely loved the Melendy Quartet by Madeline Enright when I was a kid and was so excited to read them to my own kids. I read these books over and over again. They are a little worse for the wear and I don’t think having them stored over my mother’s garage for years helped.
There are four books in the series: The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, Spiderweb for Two – A Melendy Maze.
The series starts with the four Melendy Children living in New York City with their father and Cuffy the housekeeper/nanny. We learn early in the first book that their mother has died. Mona (13) is an aspiring actress, Rush (12) is a piano prodigy, Randy (10) – short for Miranda – loves to dance and paint, and Oliver (6) is thoughtful and placid. Later in the series we learn that he likes to fish and collect bugs.
The Melendy children decide that they are tired of boring Saturday so they pool their allowance and each week one of the children uses all of the money to go on an adventure in the city. With the Independent Saturday Afternoon Adventure Club (I.S.A.A.C.) in full swing the children have memorable afternoons exploring the city, feeding their talents, and meeting new people.
In The Four Story Mistake the family moves to the country into a hodgepodge house where they discover hidden attractions and secrets in the house and come to realize that they love living in the country. Unlike the other books in this series, The Four Story Mistake doesn’t have a defined plot but is rather a treasure trove of adventures that all kids would love like discovering swimming holes, eating over a campfire, and finding secret rooms. Despite being in the midst of WWII and being motherless the Melendy’s are happy.
If you want to share this charming family with you kids you can snag the series here (commissioned link):
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