beautifulminutiae's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Fatphobia
sc104906's review against another edition
2.0
Zany family moves to zanier house. Presents the lives of the Melendy family.
zoemaja's review against another edition
5.0
moving on - this is our current riding in the car with kids audio book. We can't get enough of the Melendys!
audio
audio
technocracygirl's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
ashleylm's review against another edition
4.0
Sweet, but not as engaging as the first book, perhaps because I'm a huge fan of New York City, and getting to read about children who live there kept me both rapt and envious. The move to a more rural settings makes the adventures far more prosaic for me (I can scarecely recall them, only days later. There was ice skating at one point, and sort of a meaningless discovery of a secret room. The best part for me involved a part-time job back in NYC, except it was never fully described or depicted, despite its allure.
She's a wonderful writer, of course, it's just that I preferred when she wrote about the big city. Her characters never seem less than true, although a modern child might have trouble believing people their age were once so polite and generally well-behaved.
(5* = amazing, terrific book, one of my all-time favourites, 4* = very good book, 3* = good book, but nothing to particularly rave about, 2* = disappointing book, and 1* = awful, just awful. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)
She's a wonderful writer, of course, it's just that I preferred when she wrote about the big city. Her characters never seem less than true, although a modern child might have trouble believing people their age were once so polite and generally well-behaved.
(5* = amazing, terrific book, one of my all-time favourites, 4* = very good book, 3* = good book, but nothing to particularly rave about, 2* = disappointing book, and 1* = awful, just awful. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)
hoperu's review against another edition
4.0
I just re-read this by listening to it on tape. I had forgotten just how much I liked the Melendy family. As an only child, I loved reading about a family full of children who had fun together. As a suburb dweller in the West, I liked to read about living in the woods in the Northeast.