The Moffats

Another delightful gem that I somehow missed when I was growing up. A small town family lives in a rented yellow house. Their life shifts when the house is put up for sale by their landlord. Each little adventure from a dancing dog to hiding in a bread box is incredibly sweet. I particularly loved the unplanned field trip of the little kindergarten who hopped on a local train.

Meet the Moffats. There is Sylvie, the oldest, the cleverest, and-most days at least-the responsible one; Joey, who though only twelve is the man of the house...sometimes; Janey, who has a terrific upside-down way of looking at the world; and Rufus, who may be the littlest but always gets in the biggest trouble.

Even the most ordinary Moffat day is packed with extraordinary fun. Only a Moffat could get locked in a bread box all afternoon, or dance with a dog in front of the whole town, or hitch a ride on a boxcar during kindergarten recess. And only a Moffat could turn mistakes and mischief into hilarious one-of-a-kind adventure.

I enjoyed the whole series, but I don't have any idea if these would appeal to children today. Maybe now just a book for adults nostalgic for simpler times - not necessarily the times in which the book was set, but the time when children's books didn't have to deal with current events, and have to be "politically correct"

Of course I loved this, several times, when I was a child. But when I saw a copy in the thrift store, I decided I had to read it again. It holds up and is still wonderfully charming.

I still don't like Slobodkin's pictures, though. They're necessary, now even more so, because today's kids can't guess what it means for, for example, a nine-year old child to hide in a bread box. But I'd love to see them redone.

My kids and I found this book delightful! We picked it up after my daughter read the divvying-up-the-kittens section in her writing curriculum (Writing with Ease, Volume 3 by Susan Wise Bauer...we've found so many great books through this curriculum!), and they lost interest for a couple of weeks once we'd made it past the kitten part, but we finished it this morning, and they give it high marks.

It's always interesting to me to see how much freedom children have in books written in earlier times. I can't imagine sending my kids out in the New England winter with a sled and a five-dollar bill to bring back a big bag of coal, and not just because our boiler uses piped-in natural gas.

I also found the section where the family were show more quarantined very interesting. It seems like people were much less sanguine about going ill to school/work back in the day. show less

This was a cute little story read in just a few hours. It focuses on the four children of a single mother living in a small Connecticut suburb. Written in 1941 before the U.S. involvement in World War II, but taking place just after World War I, it is tinged with easy innocence. The children, Jane, Sylvie, Joey and Rufus, are just old enough to begin helping mom with household chores and running small errands in town, but they are still young enough to get themselves into mischief. Running away from school and riding a freight train as a first grader wasn't as dangerous then as it would be today.

This is a sweet episodic family story, set around the time of WWI. The past setting isn't alienating, the characters and their concerns are easy to relate to. It would make an excellent read aloud - I'd recommend it to someone looking for a family story to read to children of different ages. With Janey (8) and Rufus (5) the main focus, this can appeal to boys and girls of different ages.
I listened to the Full Cast Audio production. While it was wonderfully done as I've come to relish from Full Cast, this story didn't give them much scope to work with, as there was little conversation, and much description.