5 Days of Great Kid's Books - The Melendy Quartet by Elizabeth Enright

 

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Welcome to 5 Days of Great Kid's Books. I will spending the next five days sharing some kid's books that have become favorites in our house. Also keep your eyes open since I will be hosting a giveaway to go along with 5 Days of Great Kid's Books.

Getting great books into my kid's hands is important to me and I have to thank the Advisory ladies at Ambleside Online for providing such great suggestions and so many have become favorites with myself and my kids. (Please note: Many of these books titles are on other lists. I just happened to discover them from AO.) 

 

The Melendy Quartet by Elizabeth Enright starts with the first book, The Saturdays, where the Melendy children are introduced. They live with their father and their housekeeper, Cuffy. The oldest, Mona, is 13 and desires to be an actress, Rush is a mischievous 12 year old, Randy (for Miranda) is 10 1/2 and loves to dance and paint, and Oliver is a thoughtful six year old.

 

In The Saturdays they start the Independent Saturday Afternoon Adventure Club. The children decide to pool their resources and each child gets a Saturday to spend the way they like. They experience many adventures, meet interesting people, and make lasting memories.

 

In The Four-Story Mistake, the Melendy family move into the country into an odd looking house where they discover a special room. They soon discover that country life is just as interesting as living in the city.

 

Then There Were Five continues with the Melendy children fending for themselves when an emergency requires Cuffy to leave.  Their summer is filled with many exciting incidents including canning, cooking, villains, and a scrap drive. The children discover a new neighbor boy, Mark, whom they befriend never realizing how important their friendship will become.

 

In Spiderweb for Two is a story where Randy and Oliver receive messages and riddles in the mail. Their summer is filled with solving these mysterious messages and end with a fun surprise. Of course, there are many other adventures throughout the story that only can happen to the Melendy children.

 

Why are these great book for kids?

 

The Melendy Quartet Series is just plain fun! I think these are so appealing to kids because you can put yourself in Melendy's place and imagine everything that they experience happening to you. Even though I didn't read this series until I was an adult (The Saturdays was written in 1941 and I somehow missed reading this series as a kid!) I found them just as interesting, compelling, and exciting as my children have found them to be. That is high praise in itself!

 

Don't miss out introducing this series to your kids. The beginning recommended age is 9 which I think is a great suggestion. My daughter enjoyed them at 9 while my son was more interested in them at 10. These would make a great family read-aloud or I highly recommend the audio of you can find them. (I have snagged some for around $10 on ebay.)

Come back tomorrow to learn of another series that has made a big hit!
 

Other recommended reads by Elizabeth Enright:

This post is part of a 5 Day Blog Hop hosted by Schoolhouse Review Crew. Be sure to check it out.