Customer Reviews

The Middle Moffat

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Okay, you know your average family, right? Well The Moffat's are anything but ordinary! I mean sure they have two sisters, two brothers, and a widowed mom. But do normal families have 10 year olds who are friends with 99 year olds? I think not, besides the fact of being a little weird, The Middle Moffat is a perfectly written book. The Middle Moffat is an excellent book by Eleanor Estes. Wonderful, adorable art for kids, that you will enjoy, drawn by Louis Slobodkin, The Middle Moffat is 234 pages packed of laughs and touching moments. The Middle Moffat won Horn Book Award and Newbery Honor Award. Some other books written by Eleanor Estes are: Alley, Ginger pye, Pinky pye, Hundred Dresses, The Moffats, Moffat Museum, Rufus M., Tunnel of Hugsey Goode, and The Witch Family. Most of these books have received awards such as ALA, Library Journal, NY book review, Newbery Honor, Publisher Weekly, and Horn book award. I loved reading about the adventures of Janey Moffat, in The Middle Moffat. I highly recommend you read it. Janey has kooky adventures in boring Cranbury CT. Janey will be remembered forever.
In Janey's first adventure she puts on an Organ Recital. Most of the people in Cranbury come; of course there is a twist. Then you can't forget when Janey spends a day with Mr. Buckle, or when she meets Nancy, her best friend. Along the way Wallie Bangs, a mechanical wizard moves in next door. But what did he do with her skates? Or the best adventure and heart warming of all, Christmas Eve, all Rufus wants is a pony! Rufus might not get what he wants, what'll Janey do this time to help her brother. Once Janey fixed Christmas she joins a play, the three little bears. But no, her head is gone! Nancy and Jane then set off for the eclipse in Cranbury. Guess who they meet he's furry too! "I'm no good..." sighed Janey. HA! Yeah right, Janey takes up Basketball and see what she does for the team. It can't be Janey and Nancy not friends! Nancy feels bad about hurting Janey and gives her a ring, ahhh friends again. And Janey can't soon be forgotten on Mr. Buckle's birthday, what a sweet gift she bought him.
Reading The Middle Moffat was like a chocolate cake baked to perfection, every layer of frosting perfectly smoothed on creamy and whipped. YUM! Go ahead and read up. Eleanor Estes adds humor to every page! I love reading this book, the characters are so fun! For instance in parts she used words a four year old would like ignoramus. Estes uses incredible wording only a kid would understand and an adult would laugh at. Like in a part Janey [Estes] thinks you save daylight in a box. Or when she waited up all night for Santa to come. Of course I can't stop laughing when she convinces the all the neighbor hood kids to run into Wallie Bang's basement and steal their stuff back.
I love the plot of this book too! I like how Janey is always trying to be mysterious. Or when Janey won the basketball game and her wish came true. Or when Nancy gave Jane her friendship ring I couldn't help but smile. I think the best part though is when she gave Mr. Buckle his birthday present. Throughout all the chapters of Janey's adventures each one making me smile. I think this book is well dissevering of all the awards it won. Eleanor Estes has the most creative, spunky, humorous, lovable, and fun way of writing.
Overall as you can tell I loved reading this book. There aren't enough hours in the day for me to say how much I like it, but I can try. If you read the book for your self you will understand the way Eleanor Estes writing flows and makes you want more. After each sentence you are begging to read a little more just to widen that smile. All her sentences just flow into one another making it so you can read for hours. I loved the way she wrote about a ten year old. Janey is just too young to understand what people mean. She has her own ideas about the way the world think and I think a lot of us can understand and relate to that. I recommend this to anyone who needs a good laugh and need to lighten up. Or someone who has just come home and has had a horrible day. I can guarantee that if kids or adults read this they will laugh, cry, and smile with Janey.

I read this book to my three boys ages 9,6 and 3 and they could not stop laughing. Jane's imagination and simple ways of viewing life around her really capture what it is like to be a kid. We had to stop several times so that they could act out certain parts. I think Jane is a friend that we all would like to have. She's beyond nice and there is never a dull moment when she is around (whether it's in her mind or really happening). Now that we have read the book we really miss Jane.

The Middle Moffat

Jane Moffat wants to help the oldest inhabitant of her town, reach the age of 100, and now he's 99. Jane tries to help him but he's always doing stuff that 99-year-old-men shouldn't do. She tries to look out for him without anyone noticing.
While Jane is looking out for the oldest inhabitant, she gets some problems herself. Her best friend has gotten angry at her because she didn't take her side at school. She finds out that she has a secret talent for basketball by helping the local team win. Jane also becomes the first one to stand up to the mechanical wizard, (a smart boy who knows a lot about mechanics) who gathers people's stuff, takes it apart, and leaves it in his basement.
I think Eleanor Estes did an okay job of writing this book. To me, it was a little boring because in some parts not much happened. I think if she summarized these parts in a few sentences, it would've been a much better book. This book is a decent fiction story, but I think it would be best for a younger girl like Jane.

This is one of my favorite books - so touching and endearing and makes me wish we could go back to those olden days of simplicity and values.

i read the Moffat series books when i was young.. many years ago.. i still remember the wonderful stories 40 years later.. to not read these wonderful stories would deprive any child of wondrous times of hardship and amazement by a sweet, kind, brave girl.. if you have a child.. or children.. if you love to read and haven't found these books yet.. find them.. read them.. for yourself.. to your child.. or let them read them to you..

oh one more thing.. i'm a man.. and still i found these books spectacular.. these are not stories of just a little girl.. they are stories of those times.. of war and people.. my favorite, the money under the ice and the coal.. i now have 2 daughters who have read them as well.. and they loved them..

The mysterious middle moffat is not mysterious. That's the fun it and the humor. The middle moffat is even better than the first book! The sequil! how rare is that? The middle moffat is an excellent book for everyone of all ages. Janie is just too much fun, she is the most excellent of all the moffats.

I'm only rating it four stars, but I really did enjoy it. Jane, the "middle moffat" is trying to do everything. She makes friends with a 99 year old neighbor, while at the same time trying to do everything to help him live to a 100. She helps her little brother Rufus at Christmas. While everyone's asleep, she climbs downstairs...

Anyway, I really liked this book, and I think kid's UNDER nine would enjoy it too.

My earliest recollections of reading are when I got my first library card in grade school many, many, did I say many?, years ago. The books that stand out as my first are The Moffat series by Eleanor Estes. To this day I can remember reading about the Moffat family, especially young Rufus. Perhaps I identified with him. I love the drawings in the book and the stories. They are full of family fun and values. I just bought these for my new step-children (getting married Mar 30/10) for them to get the enjoyment that I remember. An excellent value and free shipping if you purchase all 4. I actually received one free because I purchased 4. Worked for me. Enjoy!!! Perhaps they are what inspired me to become an author myself.

It's true, they don't write books like they used to. This is a funny, extremely well continuing story of the Moffat family. We would highly recommend the whole series!