Estes, Eleanor. The Moffats. New york: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., 1941.
This was a cute little story read in just a few hours during the downgraded to the tropical storm “hurricane” Irene. 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.
Author Fact: Eleanor Estes was a librarian.
Book Trivia: The Moffats is only the beginning of the story. Estes goes on to write more about the family in The Middle Moffat among others.
BookLust Twist: Nancy Pearl liked The Moffats a great deal. It is mentioned once in Book Lust in the introduction and twice in More Book Lust in the chapters called “Best For Boys and Girls” (p 21) and “Libraries and Librarians” (p 138).
~*LunaSea*~ 