I agree with those who say that this is the best book out of the four. It's definitely the most complex, and has the most character development. Mark, who was an abused child long before that became a catch-phrase, is sketched out wonderfully. Oren's sister, who he mentioned early on, must have been a good influence on him, because he's resilient, kind and intelligent, despite what he has to put up with from Oren. I agree with Rush when he said the Melendys were the lucky ones, to get Mark for a brother!

Although I did think Rush was pretty rude, barging in every day while the girls were canning, and demanding to be fed immediately! Did he think that just because Mona and Randy didn't have a five-course meal ready and waiting, that they were going to let the guys starve? And it's not like they'd been doing nothing! God bless Mr. Titus for helping them out!

My favorite bits were when Rush and Mark spy on Oren and his pals at the still---that was real adult talk, but still appropriate for a kids' book: not easy to bring off---and the auction and fair. I loved when the Delacey brothers showed up and bid on the boar. "The three of them should be very happy together"---good one, Willy!

And I felt so bad for Oliver when he fell down the well! That was a good device, too. For so long, he'd gotten so little attention because he didn't demand any, and look what finally happened. It forced the other kids to realize how much they cared about him, and show it, and they handled it themselves, showing how capable they were. Good for them!

And I also liked when Cuffy was leaving to visit her cousin and had to cram weeks worth of nagging into an hour. "Close the windows whenever it rains! (Duh!) Call me long distance if anything goes wrong! (And that will help, how?) Don't forget to feed the DOGS! (Like they'd let you!)"

The third Melendy novel has a darker undertone than the preceding two, with the introduction of Mark Herron, a lonely orphan befriended by Rush and Randy, and his guardian-cousin, the fearsome Oren Meeker. There are thrills and heart-clutchers a-plenty--Rush and Mark spying on an illegal whiskey still, a vividly described house fire--but they're nicely leavened by the lighter incidents like the character of Mr. Jasper Titus, rural gourmand, and the resolve of Mona and Randy to undertake the canning of the family's victory-garden produce. And in the end everything comes out right, as it should in a juvenile. This is the book to which Enright was leading up with the previous two, and perhaps the best she wrote. The whole trilogy would make a splendid miniseries on TV (is any executive reading this? I'll even do the script!).

This excellent children's book (and at 24, I still enjoy it!) is superbly written and quirkily illustrated by Enright herself. She brings to life once again, the four Melendy children -- Mona, the beautiful, vain, Shakespearean actress in training, Rush, the erratic piano prodigy, Randy, the kindhearted painter/dancer and Oliver, the chubby young entomologist in the making. It's hard to describe the continuing ability to fascinate, the mesmeric hold these pleasantly told, often quietly funny pages have for the reader, even when one reads the book over and over again. The addition of a new member of the family makes for great adventure and an unexpected element of danger in a book by Enright.

When I was in the fourth grade back in the 1950's I picked up, for 25 cents, a copy of "The Melendy Family", donated by an eighth-grader who evidently felt she had "outgrown" it. I wonder, does one ever outgrow this book? Almost 50 years later I still have it, read to shreds, patched and repatched with scotch tape, a book to be treasured forever and never thrown away. Elizabeth Enright told the story of a family of four children with such freshness and originality that she still received letters years afterwards from young readers wondering if the Melendys were "real". Enright set her story during the second World War and the three books comprising this volume span a time period of less than two years, from early 1942 to late 1943; but they are chock full of enough fun and adventure to satisfy any youngster -- or oldster -- fortunate enough to get hold of it. Holt publishers should do the world a favor and reprint this book as soon as possible. It's a gem for every child and every generation. I still marvel at the priceless find I picked up off a bookshelf at random 50 years ago for only 25 cents. It's paid me back a zillion-fold ever since.

I read this book over and over as a young girl. My public library had the book in a Hardcover Complilation of the Three Stories in Sucession. I must have read it every summer, losing myself in the adventures with the children in this family. I have been looking for this book for my own daughter to read and have been unsucessful in finding it in any local library. I am truely looking forward to getting a copy of it for her to read. A must Read if your child is an avid reader!

When I was in my twenties, I found this book in my local library when I was studying to become a children's fiction writer. To date, I have never found another book of such absolute fresh, non-candied innocence. I have used the Melendy Family over and over as a sort of therapy for the more stressed and worldly times in my life, where I can be an observer into the lives of these four (later five) different children during the 1940's, where they embark on all sorts of different adventures. Elizabeth Enright was the perfect spyglass into the hearts and minds of children. When I read her books, it brings back my memories of how it actually felt to have all the wonder and giddiness and mischeviousness of being a child. And the rest of the world disappears for a while. I urge anyone who has lost sight of how it felt to be a child to read this book series.

Enright makes her first foray into juvenile mystery as an element of this story. The Blakes have purchased Mrs. Brace-Gideon's old mansion, the Villa Caprice, just back from Gone-Away Lake, to be their summer home. The focus of the book is in their efforts to restore it--and in the children's quest to discover the hidden safe which (so their "Aunt" Minnehaha tells them) exists somewhere in the house. I always find myself wishing I could get my hands on a house like this one! Another splendid Enright, gloriously returned to print.

Elizabeth Enright is an extraordinary author. I've read three books by her (Gone Away Lake, Return To Gone Away, and The Four Story Mistake) and I wanted to know more about the families. I felt like I knew the characters. I appreciate what Miss Enright left for us.

I was happy to see this book, a few years back, as a part of a classroom reading set. I use it in my fifth grade classroom. The myterious setting, plot and unique but real characters with the yarns of the past, are beloved by fifth graders. The book is so popular I am down to fifteen copies. Our poor school district finally passed a levy and then I find its out of print. I hope that it comes back into print so I don't have to end this anxiously awaited reading.

I have my original Zeee, given to me by my mother on Valentine's Day 1965. Luckily, I have daughters who give me a second chance to enter Zeee's invisible and beautiful spaces.

Zeee is my favorite childhood book, originally published (and first read by me) in 1965. The story, long out of print until its recent re-issue, remained with me as a fond memory of a time long ago when fairies made homes in discarded beach pails and little girls made furniture for them from found miniatures such as shells, flowers, and twigs. When I "found " the book again, I found a piece of myself -- a link to my "inner child" and a revived kinship with Zeee, the fairy who hates people

I checked Zeee out from the library numerous times when I was a child. It has now been re-published for the next generation of children to read. Zeee is a delightful story with wonderful pictures. It makes you want to search your own backyard for a fairy. The story: Zeee has emotional trials and tribulations while trying to find the perfect home. Every time she thinks she has found a wonderful location, a human destroys it. It's a delightful story and I highly recommend it a "must-have"

When I was a girl I loved checking this book out at our library, both for the beautiful illustrations and for Tatsinda herself. Of course Tatsinda would have had no difficulty having her beauty appreciated in the USA. It could have been her personal tragedy that she has brown eyes and golden hair in a land where everyone else has blue eyes and white hair, so she's considered disfigured. Tatsinda does not allow the rude opinion of those around her to sour her personality. The strength and courage of this extraordinary young woman are proved in a daring adventure. In the end, she is instrumental in changing her community's narrow point of view. Besides the heroine, I love the wise woman who knew Tatsinda's true worth before anyone else did. I also liked the woman's attitude toward people who wanted to consult her. I don't have the book with me at the moment, so I hope I'm quoting her correctly: "Waste not my time, waste not your own. Ask only that which MUST be known." My review's title comes from the fact that this wonderful book was out of print for many years. Back when I was in library school ['76-'77] and had no car, another student from my dormitory was nice enough to give several of us a lift to a local used bookstore. There I spotted a copy of TATSINDA. I bought it even though the driver saw it and exclaimed that she loved that book. I felt horrible because she would have been able to buy it for herself if she hadn't done me a kindness, but my better nature did not prevail. I never saw her again after graduation, so I couldn't even mail her another used copy I found. I'm so glad the book is in print again, not just for all the readers who now have a chance to be as enchanted as I was, but because that nice lady can get her own copy.

When blonde Tatsinda is dropped, literally, into the mountaintop land of the Tatrajanni, her unusual coloring sets her apart from the people of the kingdom. She must overcome their prejudice to win the love of the prince and establish her own worth in their midst. The book is full of strange and mystical characters and creatures.

Tatsinda is a strong female character in a book that was written long before this was the norm. It was my favorite book when I was ten and still is as I pass it along to all the ten year olds on my gift giving list.

My daughter, age 9 and I both read The Saturdays over the past few months along with Four-Story Mistake. We loved this family and found each character fun. I loved their adventures and wish I had read these books as a child. I recommend this book to anyone who values their child's mind and wants to protect them from the abundance of nonsense in some children's literature.

When I was in third grade, a classroom aide gave us the option of listening to her read out loud, or playing on the playground. Her book of choice? The Saturdays. Within the week, every child was choosing to stay in during recess and breathlessly awaiting the further exploits of Mona, Rush, Randy and Oliver. At 40 years of age, it continues to be an all-time favorite book of mine, as well as the other books about the Melendys. I consider it a treasure to pass on to my eight-year-old daughter; something we will share and laugh together about for years.

I've loved The Saturdays since I was about 8, when I read it for the first time. It wasn't until I was older that I realized: these children had to figure out things for fun, because they didn't have TELEVISION! What a concept! Just look what awesome things they find to do. I'm delighted to share this book, and that added idea, with my son.

I got *The Saturdays*, the first book in the Melendy series, as my first selection from the Calling All Girls Book Club. I was an 8-year old Air Force Brat in Honduras ["own-doo-rahs"] and that book club was a lifeline. I hoped the club would send me more books about the Melendy family, but it didn't. I thought there were no more and was disappointed. Then the revolution of 1963 sent us back to the states and I was able to go public libraries. How wonderful it was to discover there were *three* more Melendy books! I fell in love with the Four-Story Mistake from the start. I wanted to live there then and I wouldn't mind living there now. What a wonderful place! What a great family! I hope I'll never be too cynical or jaded for these books. If you last read this series as a child, it's more than time to reacquaint yourself. Ann E. Nichols

This is a book about the Melendy children-Mona, Rush, Randy and Oliver-who have lived in the city all their lives. Now they must move to an old mansion in the countryside, "The Four-Story Mistake." The house got its name because when built it was meant to be four stories, but was only built three stories high. The owners of the house built a cupola on top to make up for the missing fourth story. The house is full of places to hide and more adventures than anyone could imagine. I found the Melendy children very entertaining and their adventures quite humorous. I enjoyed this book a lot, and think it would be a very good book for other fifth-grade girls.

As a child I checked this book out because it was part of an collection of 3 Elizabeth Enright books(in one very large book now out of print) that was thick enough to put me first on our class reading chart (you moved up a level for every 100pgs). After 3 years and more than two dozen readings I returned it to the library. This book takes a child and thier imagination out to play with the Melendy kids and help them explore thier new house with all its secrets and adventures. Along the way it gives understanding of what it was like for American children in the WWII Era. For me this book inspired a lifelong interest in the real lives of people behind the statistics of our history. I have been looking for this book off and on for 20 years. Now I have found it and even better, my kids are old enough to go on Mona, Rush, Randy, and Oliver Melendy's adventures too. The Melendy's lives continue in the book Then There Were Five. Don't let the reasonable price fool you both books are treasures for a childs mind.

"Spiderweb for Two" is the last book in the series about the Melendy family and it's my least favorite of the four, simply because there are not enough Melendys in it. When the book opens, one year after the end of the third book, the three oldest children are off to boarding school and Randy and Oliver are facing a lonely, boring winter by themselves, until a mysterious letter written on blue paper arrives in the mail, containing the first clue to what will be a year-long treasure hunt. The clues are funny and entertaining, and the adventures Randy and Oliver get into, going from one clue to the next, are enjoyable. But we miss the presence of Mona, Rush and Mark except during the brief period they are home from school for the Christmas holidays, and the adults in the family, Father, Cuffy and Willie, aren't quite enough to take up the slack.

One thing about "Spiderweb" that sets it apart from the first three books is the lack of a time frame. Enright wrote the first three during World War II and the war is at the center of the family's lives and is present in each book; the children are busy presenting a show and working after school to buy war bonds and going on scrap metal drives during the summer holiday. The first three books take place from the later winter and early spring of 1942, through the end of the summer of 1943. But although "Spiderweb" runs from October of 1944 to June of 1945, the war is never even referred to in the book. Even V-E Day in May of 1945 which would have been celebrated all over town, isn't mentioned. Perhaps this is because Enright wrote "Spiderweb" ten years after she wrote the third book and many of her readers hadn't been born during the war; but still, some mention of the events would have given the book a dimension that is present in the first three but lacking in this one.

When I turned the last page of "Spiderweb" after reading it as a child, I was devastated to realize that there would be no more Melendy books. But Enright had the right idea; the next year would have seen Randy herself going off to boarding school and leaving Oliver rattling around the Four Story Mistake by his lonesome. A depressing prospect indeed. Enright knew where to end it.

This book is the fourth, and last book, in the series about the Melendy children. This particular book is about Oliver and Randy Melendy. Their siblings (Mona, Rush, and Mark) have just gone off to boarding school, and Randy and Oliver are bored. One day, a letter comes in the mail for them! They open it, and inside there is a poem written on a piece of paper. It is the beginning of a treasure hunt. All through the year they search for the clues that the poems talk about.
In this book, sometimes you can tell what is going to happen next and figure out the clues yourself, and sometimes you can not. This book was mysterious like when they got the first clue, but I would suggest that you read the first book before you read this one. It is called The Saturdays.
One of my favorite characters is Miss Bishop because she is nice, tells stories, and never goes to the store. She does not go to the store because she eats wild things and grows things in her garden. She is nice because she helps Oliver when he gets lost.

This was the first Melendy book I heard. My first school teacher read it to my class all through the hot summer of 1988 and we all loved it. We were all about the same age as the Oliver and Randy and enjoyed trying to solve the clues before them. I have read it hundreds of times since then and it has never lost its shine. It has a timeless quality to it which I associate with the books of E. Nesbit. It remains my favourite book of the series. An American classic

Gone-Away Lake is about a girl named Portia Blake who goes with her brother Foster to visit their cousin Julian in the country. Every summer they go to Julian and Aunt Hilda and Uncle Jake's house. Portia and Julian always go exploring outdoors. This summer is even more exciting because Julian's family moved into a new house and so they have a new place to explore. On their first day Portia and Julian discover a big rock with a mysterious message written in Latin on it. They keep walking and get lost. They come to a swamp that is choked with reeds and on the other side of it is a ghost town! Or is it really abandoned? They find out that two people live there - Mrs. Minnehaha Cheever and Mr. Pindar Payton. Why are they living all alone on this swamp? To find out why they are there and the history of the swamp, you should read this book that is very good.

Gone-Away Lake and its sequel were my favorite books as a child, and I have also re-read them frequently over the years. I feel a kinship with the other people who have reviewed this book and love it as I do. I now have introduced it to my 8 year old son, and am so happy that he shares my love for this book. I love escaping to this gone-away place, and wish that I grew up in an era when children could safely wander, explore, and discover during the long lazy days of summer! How much more wonderful than today's summers filled with shopping malls, television, and Nintendo!

Written and set about 20 years later than the author's Melendy series, this book and its sequel prove that Enright hadn't lost her insight into juvenile character. Portia and Foster Blake head for upstate New York to visit their cousin, Julian Jarman, and his parents. Like the Melendys at the Four-Story Mistake, the Jarmans have just shifted quarters, and thereby hangs the tale: exploring the new region, Portia and Julian happen upon a former lake mostly drained by a new dam, and edged still by the crumbling remains of a community of late-Victorian summer houses. Living there are two elderly eccentrics who spent their childhood summers at the resort and inspire a season of wonderful reminiscences and adventures. This is another excellent family read-aloud with splendidly drawn characters (both children and adults). I still reread it regularly though I'm a long way from being age 9-12!

This is a quiet and gentle read about life on a Wisconsin farm in the 1930's, when great grand- parents still recall tales about Indians. Nine- year-old Garnet Linden (well, yes, she's blond but not necessarily Scandinavian) reminds us of Laura Ingalls, for she is plucky, mischievous and strong-willed. It was a simpler age, with simple pleasures: safe hitchiking, swimming in the creek, barn-raisings, ice cream and County Fairs. But farmers had it tough then what with drought and financial worries until the harvest was in. Garnet's brother, Jay, has decided that he does Not want to be a farmer, but what about the new orphan boy who shows up one night by the lime kiln? Is he farmer material perhaps?

There is not much of a plot--just events strung out like beads on a necklace. But it is a laid-back kind of book which young girls will enjoy. The illustrations are delightful; we see bubbly Garnet chasing chickens, locked in (I won't say where!), and on the cover she proudly holds her pet pig. One theme is that you really should be grateful to have Good Neighbors. Also that you need special eyes to recognize treasures when you find them. From the creek, then from the woods--what will she do with hers?

This is a book about Garnet Linden, a 10 year old Wisconsin girl, and her summer on her parents'farm. She finds a thimble on a river creek bottom and good things start to happen. I enjoyed all Elizabeth Enright's descriptive details of the sounds and smells of summertime and the small,quiet towns in Wisconsin. I couldn't wait to turn the page to read more of Garnet's adventures. The dialogue and the scenes are very true-to-life. This book should be especially enjoyed by Midwesterners. Recommended for 10-to 13 yr. old girls, but I'm a lot older than that and I loved it.

I liked this book because it was an adventurous book and it was just a really neat book. Even though I'm twelve, and this book was probally made for eight through ten year olds, I liked this book a lot. It was fun to read about all of Garnet's (the main charatcher of this book) adventures and how she was happy throughout most of this book. The funnest part is when Garnet is able to get a pig. Garnets parents alow Garnet to enter her pig in a contest. When Garnet and her family got to the fair, something bad happens. Read it and you'll find out what it is. It's an exciting and happy book all the way through. (and of course, that's what I think!)

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