I’m excited to announce that I’m hosting a book club this October on my Patreon, and we’re reading SPIDERWEB FOR TWO: A MELENDY MAZE by Elizabeth Enright!

Here’s what you need to know:

⦁ It’s free! And it starts October 1st, so sign up now!

⦁ It’s hosted on my Patreon. You can subscribe to my Patreon for free and I will make all the book club content available for everyone. 🙂

⦁ The book I’ve chosen is about two children who attempt to solve a series of riddles that mysteriously appear around their home and neighborhood. It’s fun, very autumnal, and it’s a middle grade that makes perfect reading for the entire family.

⦁ It’s very easy to access this book: not only is it still in print or on Kindle (Amazon has copies for less than $9), but there’s a wonderful audiobook version available, and it’s in tons of libraries.

⦁ I’ll be doing posts about the book, and anyone can leave comments! There won’t be official discussion questions to answer–we will only be listing the things we enjoyed in the book and chatting about that!

⦁ There’s no set schedule for reading: all you have to do is read the book whenever you want to during October and leave comments with your observations.

So if this sounds good to you, head over to my Patreon and sign up! I can’t wait to discuss this story. 🙂

Will you be joining the book club? Leave a comment!

My friend Faith Elizabeth Hough (who blogs HERE) and I decided to create a fun reading challenge called Vintage Kidlit Summer. If you missed any of the details on how this challenge works, just go here and you can catch up! Basically, we’re doing 12 categories over 12 weeks, and each week has its own theme. All you have to do is choose a vintage/classic book that fits that week’s theme, read it, and share about it! You can write about it on your blog, or you can post your thoughts on Instagram (or Twitter) as well, by using the hashtag #vintagekidlitsummer. And if you’re in need of recommendations for each week’s theme, check out this blog post!

Our seventh week’s theme was Big Family Story, and for this theme I chose to re-read Then There Were Five by Elizabeth Enright. It’s the third installment of the Melendy series (one of my all-time favorites!), and here’s what I’ve written about it previously on my blog:

Here’s a quintessential portrait of a five children enjoying an old-fashioned summer—including stargazing, fruit canning, and all the glories of August—depicted with Enright’s usual stunning imagery.

AND

… a celebration of summer, adventure, and family. Without a doubt, Enright is the best writer of description I’ve ever read.

I always come away from this book with two major takeaways: this is one of the most summery books I’ve read, and Enright’s descriptions are second to none. The funny thing is that this book is supposed to be set in either rural New York or Connecticut or somewhere like that … I can’t recall if it’s ever stated where the Four-Story Mistake is. All I know is that it’s not terribly far from their old home in New York City. It’s certainly not in Wisconsin. But that’s exactly what this setting feels like!

Thimble Summer, which I read in Week 1, was set in Wisconsin and drawn from Enright’s own visits there. But there is no question in my mind that a lot of her Wisconsin experiences informed the glorious countryside the Melendy children find themselves in. I was just admiring the wild mullein that had bloomed in the garden when I read this sentence in Then There Were Five: “The mullein had finished blooming, and stood up out of the pastures like dusty candelabra.” And then … “the bee balm was covered with little crown-shaped pods.” “The lazy monarch butterflies were everywhere.” And earlier, “The monarch caterpillar, for instance, contrived a waxy chrysalis of pale green, flecked with tiny arabesques of gilt.” All the nature descriptions bring to mind so vividly these things I’ve seen here in the north, and that’s what makes this book come to life for me. (And yes, I have shined a flashlight in my window at night to watch the moths, just like Oliver! I can confirm it’s a truly magical experience.)

And of course there are other amazing scenes and lines. I think so many of us can identify with Mona here: “She loved all old things: old books, old legends, old wrecks of houses such as this.” I am Mona! I love the family’s drive to help the war effort with patriotic things like a scrap metal hunt and a bazaar. And Mona and Randy trying to think of good meals to throw together during their canning is hilarious (speaking of which, Mr. Titus is a fabulous character)!

What did you read for the Vintage Kidlit Summer this week? Let me know in the comments!

I hope you are having a lovely spring! I am having such a good time planting a few early seeds, doing some weeding, and watching a certain chickadee gather materials for her nest. But as usual, I’m also deep in the throes of rewriting a novel (I’m at 26k), and I’m enjoying my reading as well.

With the assistance of a helpful librarian at the Kerlan Collection of the University of Minnesota Libraries, I was recently able to acquire some scans of Maud Hart Lovelace’s research materials for Emily of Deep Valley (1950), which provided an interesting window of insight into Lovelace’s method of pre-writing (at least for Emily). I’m very much fascinated by the behind-the-scenes processes of my favorite writers, which I am sure will inspire many more blog posts like this one today and this one from last year, which explores L.M. Montgomery’s possible influence on the novels of Noel Streatfeild and Margaret Sutton. That is my particular area of interest: how writers are influenced by the authors who came before them.

Speaking of scans from the Kerlan Collection, I was also able to study a letter written in 1958 by Noel Streatfeild to Elizabeth Enright, who was evidently one of her favorite authors. In this letter, Streatfeild complimented the Melendy Quartet books and wondered if perhaps the Melendy children’s father remarried after the series ended. Since this is exactly the idea that flitted through my brain the last time I read the series, I was utterly delighted by this and by the fact that Streatfeild wrote about the family as if they were real.

This example, too, fits into my niche of fascination, and leaves me with no doubt that Streatfeild was inspired by Enright when writing her own novels. Best of all, Streatfeild also mentioned how happy she was that Enright liked her books. This was perhaps the greatest discovery of all, for there are Streatfeild-esque traces in Enright’s The Four-Story Mistake (1942), in which Shakespeare-quoting Mona gets a job as a radio actress. (And the fact that Randy is an aspiring ballerina seals the deal.) Since the first Melendy book (The Saturdays) wasn’t published until 1941—and Ballet Shoes was from 1936—it’s safe to say that Streatfeild’s stage-inclined characters could have served as inspirations for the Melendy sisters.

Along similar lines is the way that Canadian author Jean Little (who sadly passed away last year) was influenced by L.M. Montgomery. My introduction to Montgomery’s Anne of Ingleside (1939), the sixth book in the Anne series and a recent re-read, was somewhat unusual. I was reading Little’s Spring Begins in March (1966), the sequel to her acclaimed Mine for Keeps (1962), and I came to the great scene where Meg’s grandmother reads aloud Anne of Ingleside. I had always steered clear of the book, thinking it sounded dull, but Little made the story sound so interesting that I had to give it a try.

I was subsequently swept up into the Ingleside world and immediately read Rainbow Valley (1919) and then Rilla of Ingleside (1921), despite repeated warnings from my older sisters that Walter died and it was Very Sad. But what made reading Rilla particularly interesting was that I had also just read another sequel of Jean Little’s: Listen for the Singing (1977), the heart-wrenching encore to From Anna (1972). The parallels between Listen for the Singing and Rilla of Ingleside are unmistakable: two Canadian wartime novels focused on a teenage girl’s coming of age alongside a brother who does not want to go to war (and yet who goes anyway, with ensuing tragedy). Since I already knew that Little had read Montgomery from that scene in Spring Begins in March, I wondered if she had modeled Anna Solden’s brother Rudi off of Walter Blythe. I suspect that it was an influence, whether consciously or not, and I hope to someday find a bit more concrete evidence to support my theory. Little was not without criticism of Montgomery—an article she wrote for Canadian Children’s Literature in 1975 confirms that—but she also praised the way Montgomery wrote her child characters.

But lest you think that Montgomery only inspired other writers and was not inspired by any herself, this is far from the case! When recently reading Longfellow’s epic poem Evangeline, I was enraptured by the Acadian tale but also enormously pleased to realize that here was where Montgomery doubtlessly found inspiration for her own prose. The tone and style and word choice convinced me, and this paragraph in her 1929 novel Magic for Marigold clinched it:

Lazarre was playing his fiddle behind the copse of young spruces back of the apple-barn—the old brown fiddle that his great-great-great-grandfather had brought from Grand Pré. Perhaps Evangeline had danced to it. Aunt Marigold had told Marigold the story of Evangeline.

But although poetry was a major source of influence for Montgomery, it was not her only inspiration. I’m fairly certain that she read Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868-9)—I know I’ve read this fact somewhere but I can’t remember where at the moment—and it’s fun to note that Alcott uses the phrase “kindred spirit” twice in Little Women; the phrase that Montgomery borrowed so memorably for Anne of Green Gables. Nowadays, the words “kindred spirit” are almost synonymous with Anne and Montgomery, and I love that it was perhaps Alcott who helped to influence Montgomery’s usage of the phrase.

These are just a few of the tidbits I’ve been pondering lately—including how Maud Hart Lovelace, as mentioned at the beginning of this post, may have been inspired by Montgomery’s books—but I shall have to close now. In any event, I’ll probably return to this subject soon, because I’m finding it pretty fun to wade through all this bookish conjecture!

And speaking of bookish conjecture … I have some *very exciting* news coming up hopefully later this year, so if you’d like to be one of the first to know, make sure you’re signed up to my newsletter!

Recently Read: The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner, The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright
Currently Reading: Depend on Katie John by Mary Calhoun, Nothing to Do but Stay by Carrie Young

A quick update! Because I haven’t done any writing updates lately, I thought I’d fill you in on my latest projects. First of all, I’ve been working on a new type of outlining for one of my next novels, which has been both an interesting and helpful experiment. I’ve tried to further hone my story structure, character arcs, and outlining over the past six months, and it’s fun and enlightening to test out different methods and new approaches to my novels. I also wrote a 14K-word novella in February, a sweet story set in the 1880s that I might end up expanding into a full-length novel at some point.

I only have 20,000 words left to write in my current historical novel (I’m at 45K of 65K). This particular book is delightfully fun to write – it’s the fourth in a series and by now, the characters are so firmly established in my head that it’s simply a matter of finding the most effective situations and scenes to propel their individual stories along.

About a month ago, I also experimented with a style of writing that straddles the line between prose and poetry. Using this style, I wrote a few scenes for a future book – and loved the outcome. That particular story hasn’t percolated in my brain long enough for me to write it, but I definitely feel that I will return to it someday.

I’m also currently gathering ideas for my next MG novel, sifting through plot elements and characters and concepts and settings. I’ve been testing out *a lot* of ideas lately, trying to find ones with that inspire me most. I think I’ve possibly hit upon my favorite idea in a long time!

I hope you are enjoying a beautiful spring!

Recently Read: Miss Billy series by Eleanor Porter, The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson, The Penderwicks At Last by Jeanne Birdsall

Currently Reading: The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

I am so excited to begin the first week of my #SummerofVintageKidLit! If you haven’t yet heard about my summer reading challenge, you can take a look at my recent blog post that has all the details.

The book we’re reading this week is The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright. It’s the second volume in Enright’s beloved Melendy Quartet, and I’m looking forward to re-reading it.

Here’s a summary about this book from Goodreads:

The Melendy family moves to a house in the country where a secret room, a cupola, a stable, and a brook provide Mona, Rush, Randy, and Oliver with adventures far different from the city life to which they are accustomed.

Happy Reading! Feel free to discuss this book by leaving a comment below, or tweet about it using the hashtag #SummerofVintageKidLit! Or join my Facebook group to be alerted of all the latest posts.

I hope you will join me for a fun reading challenge! For twelve weeks this summer, I’m reading one vintage children’s book a week from this list. For this list, I’ve chosen classic kid lit published in the 1930s-50s that evokes a fun summery feel! I’ve also selected a mixture of books that I’ve read before and that are new to me; the books on this list are also relatively easy to find. If you’d like to read along, I’ll be commenting regularly on this post with updates on my reading challenge and thoughts on the books, so feel free to read and comment as well! I’d love to start an engaging conversation about all the books 🙂

So, my summer of vintage kid lit kicks off on the twenty-first of June! On that day, I will begin reading (actually, re-reading!) Elizabeth Enright’s The Four-Story Mistake. This one is so much fun, and I think it’s a great start to the challenge.

I’ll also be posting updates on Twitter with my #SummerofVintageKidLit hashtag, so if you’re on Twitter, feel free to use the hashtag so we can talk more about these books!

Following up in my post last summer called The Best Books of Summer, I’ve compiled a list of eight children’s/YA books that feel perfect for autumn, with the crisp days, drizzly rain, and apples galore. 🙂 Hope you enjoy!

Depend on Katie John by Mary Calhoun
All of the marvelous Katie John books take place at least partially in the autumn, but this one feels the most like fall to me! Chronicling Katie’s experiences living in a crowded and chaotic boarding house, this sweet novel focuses on the importance of friendship and community. Definitely one of my childhood favorites!

Heaven to Betsy by Maud Hart Lovelace
I’ve already sung the praises of the Betsy-Tacy series on my blog, but today I’m highlighting the first high school book—probably my favorite in the whole series, and an ideal back-to-school story. Maud’s evocative descriptions of Midwestern Septembers and Octobers are such a treat to read! Betsy’s attempts to capture the attention of a certain Tall Dark Stranger only lead to heartache—but it’s a delightfully warm and funny story.

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
A Newbery Honor winner in 2006, Shannon Hale’s Princess Academy is the first of a three-book series—but the original is definitely the best! This gorgeous fairy-tale has some of the most brilliant metaphors I’ve ever read.

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall
The second in the beloved Penderwicks series, this novel is masterfully crafted; full of witty characterization and well-woven subplots. Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty Penderwick are four sisters who are perfectly content with life—until their widowed father decides to begin dating again! The ensuing hilarity always makes me smile.

Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M. Montgomery
Written partially as an epistolary novel, the fourth book in LMM’s immortal Anne series was actually one of the last of the series to be written (it was published in 1936). This lighthearted story depicts Anne’s three years as principal of Summerside High School, written in a pleasant episodic style and brimming with lovable characters.

Beany Malone by Lenora Mattingly Weber
I recently read this book for the first time—it’s a charming family story set at the end of World War II, and absolutely perfect for fall reading! I’ve read three books in the Beany Malone series now, and I’m eager to read more!

Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze by Elizabeth Enright
I just reread this one—it’s divine. Sprinkled with riddles and treasure hunts and humor, the fourth and final book in the Melendy Quartet is a splendid fall read, as much of the book takes place as the leaves change color and languid sunny days transition to cozy, rainy ones. Being a genealogist, I also love this book for its descriptions of lovely old rural cemeteries. J

The Haunted Attic by Margaret Sutton
The second volume of the Judy Bolton mystery series, The Haunted Attic (1932) is one of my favorites of the mysteries. Judy’s fascinating investigation into the strange noises she hears from the attic make for a gripping story with a heartwarming ending.

A handful of the five-star novels I read this spring, in no particular order:

The Penderwicks At Last (Jeanne Birdsall)

I have never anticipated a book’s release more than this one. Since early 2015, I’ve longed to find out what would transpire with the beloved Penderwick sisters in one of my favorite series…needless to say, I was *very* pleased with the outcome. No spoilers, but I will say that there are two weddings and one potential engagement, which was a highly satisfying denouement!

Then There Were Five (Elizabeth Enright)

One of the great classic middle grade authors, the endlessly talented Elizabeth Enright (1906-1968) was a master storyteller and has written some of my all-time favorite novels (Gone-Away Lake, The Sea is All Around). This is definitely the best of the fabulous Melendy Quartet series—a celebration of summer, adventure, and family. Without a doubt, Enright is the best writer of description I’ve ever read.

Jane of Lantern Hill (L.M. Montgomery)

This is quite possibly my favorite novel ever. There are so many elements that I love—an awe-inspiring setting (what’s better than Prince Edward Island?), a cast of delightfully quirky characters, a practical but imaginative heroine, and one of the best endings ever written. I only wish there had been a sequel! (According to this article, Montgomery started writing a Jane sequel but never finished it.)

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street (Karina Yan Glaser)

When this middle grade novel was released in late 2017, reviewers likened it to The Penderwicks or books by Elizabeth Enright or Eleanor Estes. I knew I had to read it—after all, how often do current novels even begin to compare to those classics? The thing that impressed me most about this sweet family story was the coziness of the environment and the timeless prose (in that respect, it had a lovely old-fashioned feel). I’ll definitely reread this one in the future!

The Secret School (Avi)

I’ve reread this one numerous times, because it’s always been high on my list of very reread-able books—probably because are several layers of depth to the story, despite its short length (it’s less than 25,000 words)! There’s a sweet simplicity to the tale that reminds me of Sarah, Plain and Tall or Charlotte’s Web, and it’s a fantastic coming-of-age story about a 14-year-old aspiring teacher.