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lived in New York City as a young girl. Eventually Rufus recovers and the scarlet fever quarantine sign comes down from the
Moffats' house. Soon one family, the Murdocks, becomes interested in the yellow house, but they cannot make up their minds to buy it or not. The Moffats get very tired of having one or more of the Murdocks always coming by to pester the family with questions and inspections about their home. Once, Janey gets so annoyed that she pranks and scares away one of the Murdocks. Finally, the house does sell, and the Moffats move to a little house with a long front yard and a tiny backyard. The Moffats' new house turns out to have a girl Janey's age right next door. The girl, Nancy Stokes, is friendly and tells Jane Moffat that they might turn out to be best friends one day. In the end, "Estes celebrates variety as the source of pleasure and growth."
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follows him, and a helpful engineer gets them back just in time for lunch. Another time, the children decide to rig up a ghost in their attic to scare the neighborhood bully Peter Frost. They use their Mama's dressmaker's form (called Madame-the-Bust), a pumpkin with real teeth and a scooter. When they take Peter Frost up to see it, they get a big scare themselves, and only later realize their cat
Catherine had made the 'ghost' move.
182:. Mama is a dressmaker with four children: Sylvie, Joey, Janey and Rufus. The two youngest, ten-year-old Janey and five-year-old Rufus, are the focus of these stories. When the book opens, Janey watches as a strange man nails a For Sale sign on their house. They have lived there since shortly after her father died, and Janey cannot imagine living anywhere else. Mama tells the children not to worry about it until it sells.
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When Rufus gets scarlet fever, the doctor puts a quarantine sign on their house. Mama, who can always find the good side of any situation, reminds the children that no one will try to buy the house while someone inside has scarlet fever. In the meantime, she entertains Rufus with stories of when she
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Each chapter in the book tells of one simple adventure the children had. For instance, when the first day of school arrives and Rufus goes to kindergarten, he takes very seriously the instruction to watch over his young friend Hughie. When Hughie runs away from school and hides on a train, Rufus
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says, "Although the events are commonplace, Estes perfectly captures children's observations, logic, and speech patterns in prose notable for its immediacy and insight... The author's clear-eyed, original view of childhood shines through all of her work, particularly her classic books about the
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for "books of remarkable merit", saying, "the children are real and individuals, the things that happen to them -- and that they happen to -- are fun to read about." It goes on to recommend it to fans of the popular
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wrote, "this is a merry book with abundant humor in story and pictures. Some of it surely comes from the author's backward look at her own childhood."
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Things are changing in the Moffat family, and Janey has the clever idea of making a museum to hold special items from their lives.
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is available on CD, Audiobook and cassette from Full Cast Audio; in
Braille and eBook from Harcourt, Brace & World.
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This book focuses on Janey, who decides to call herself 'The Middle Moffat' to feel more special.
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Rufus does everything he can to help his family deal with problems brought on by World War I.
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are a fatherless family in
Cranbury, Connecticut, which Estes modeled after her hometown of
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http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal
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This article is about the
American children's novel. For the Canadian pop group, see
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Although times have changed, the book still gets good reviews. In her 1995 book
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is the first in a series of four children's novels by
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was quite well received when it appeared. A reviewer for
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322:NOTE: The first three novels were illustrated by
42:by Eleanor Estes, illustrated by Louis Slobodkin
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434:, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1995, pp 226-7;
348:is available in 52 editions in 5 languages.
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382:American Writers for Children, 1900-1960
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307:, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1983,
286:, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1943,
262:, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1942,
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554:Children's books set in Connecticut
432:Children's Books and Their Creators
227:Children's Books and Their Creators
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384:, Gale Research, 1983, pg. 148;
229:, children's literature expert
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407:"The Moffats Starred Review"
361:Children's literature portal
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544:Series of children's books
534:American children's novels
330:was illustrated by Estes.
90:Harcourt Brace & World
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539:Novels set in Connecticut
430:Silvey, Anita, (editor),
294:; 1944 Newbury Honor book
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16:Children's Novels Series
549:1941 children's books
380:Cech, John (editor),
529:1941 American novels
334:Formats and editions
219:Five Little Peppers
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453:2011-10-24 at the
394:Horn Book Magazine
272:Newbery Honor book
204:Horn Book Magazine
396:, November, 1941;
328:The Moffat Museum
313:978-0-15-202553-3
304:The Moffat Museum
292:978-0-15-202577-9
268:978-0-15-202529-8
259:The Middle Moffat
252:978-0-439-61870-0
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27:The Moffats
21:The Moffatts
502:The Moffats
468:The Moffats
346:The Moffats
339:The Moffats
244:The Moffats
199:The Moffats
176:The Moffats
165:World War I
156:The Moffats
58:Illustrator
40:The Moffats
523:Categories
498:"Editions"
368:References
211:gave it a
180:West Haven
194:Reception
125:paperback
86:Publisher
38:Cover of
451:Archived
283:Rufus M.
222:series.
121:hardback
68:Language
270:; 1943
119:Print (
71:English
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238:Series
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135:290 pp
48:Author
507:2 May
482:2 May
416:5 May
132:Pages
76:Genre
509:2012
484:2012
473:OCLC
418:2012
309:ISBN
288:ISBN
264:ISBN
248:ISBN
123:and
102:1941
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
