Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze (Melendy Family) [Paperback]

Elizabeth Enright (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Series: Melendy Family

Left alone when Rush, Mark, and Mona go away to boarding school, Randy and Oliver are lonely and bored until a mysterious letter brings the first of many clues to a mystery that takes all winter to solve.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Welcome Back! Old favorites are being reissued in force this fall. Elizabeth Enright's Melendy Quartet follows siblings Mona, Rush, Miranda (Randy, for short) and Oliver. First published in 1941, The Saturdays kicks off the series and centers on the foursome's Independent Saturday Afternoon Adventure Club (I.S.A.A.C.), an allowance-endowed venture formed so one lucky Melendy can enjoy a solo sojourn each week. In The Four-Story Mistake (1942) the family moves from their city brownstone to the country; Then There Were Five (1944) describes what happens when the siblings befriend an orphan; and in Spiderweb forTwo: A Melendy Maze (1951), when everyone else leaves for school, Randy and Oliver are left to solve a mystery. The author's charming pen-and-inks punctuate all four volumes. (Sept.)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Elizabeth Enright (1909-1968) was born in Oak Park, Illinois, but spent most of her life in or near New York City. Her mother was a magazine illustrator, while her father was a political cartoonist. Illustration was Enright's original career choice and she studied art in Greenwich, Connecticut; Paris, France; and the Parson's School of Design in New York City. After creating her first book in 1937, she developed a taste, and quickly demonstrated a talent, for writing.

 

Throughout her life, she won many awards, including the 1939 John Newbery Medal for Thimble Summer and a 1958 Newbery Honor for Gone-Away Lake. Among her other beloved titles are her books about the Melendy family, starting with The Saturdays, published in 1941. Enright also wrote short stories for adults, and her work was published in The New Yorker, The Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, The Yale Review, Harper’s, and The Saturday Evening Post. She taught creative writing at Barnard College. Translated into many languages throughout the world, Elizabeth Enright's stories are for both the young and the young at heart.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (November 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140383964
• ISBN-13: 978-0140383966
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,268,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Least Favorite in the Series, but Still Worth Reading, July 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze (Melendy Family) (Paperback)

When I first read *Spiderweb For Two* I was deeply disappointed. Mona, Rush, and Mark are hardly even seen. Then, as an adult, I read the entire series to a much younger friend. I realized I'd underrated this book because it wasn't what I expected. I reread it again a few months ago and I loved it. The clues left for Randy and Oliver are clever. I like where they lead. I like what we learn about Mr. Melendy from one of them. I'm glad dear Mrs. Oliphant wasn't left out. I'm only sorry there aren't any more Melendy books. That young friend I read them to loved them because his own home wasn't very happy. He told me the Melendys showed him what a family could be like. I'm sorry, but I'm a little choked up thinking how much pleasure this series has given me for most of my life. This is a good family. The children are nice without being implausible angels. Mr. Melendy, Cuffy, Willie -- these are good adults for raising children. I heartily recommend the serie! ! s, not just for children, but for adults who aren't afraid of being caught reading "kids' books." Ann E. Nichols

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The end (alas) of my favorite childhood books, September 1, 2002

By 

JLind555 - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze (Hardcover)

"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.

Another problem with "Spiderweb" is that Enright seems reluctant to let some of her characters grow up. She doesn't even mention Randy's age in the book, although we know Randy is four and half years older than Oliver, which means she's already a teenager. But Randy shows no interest in boys, movie stars, popular music, or any of the things thirteen year old girls normally obsess about. Mona comes home for vacation talking about "When I grow up I want to be..." No young lady going on seventeen talks about "when I grow up", in their minds they're already grown up. Enright's young characters seem caught in a time warp, frozen in time as children.

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 Mona off to college, leaving Oliver rattling around the Four Story Mistake by his lonesome. A depressing prospect indeed. Enright knew where to end it.

Judy Lind

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT FAMILY READ-ALOUD CHOICE, January 27, 2004

By 

K. S. (Greenville, DE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze (Hardcover)

One day I saw my daughter curled up with a book. "What are you reading?" I inquired. She flashed the well-loved cover of my childhood copy of Spiderweb for Two. "I was feeling Melendyish today," she explained. "Melendyish" is the perfect word to describe that sensation experienced by die-hard fans of Elizabeth Enright's four Melendy stories when nothing else will do but to curl up with one of her books and visit the beloved Melendy family once again. When I was a child the four Melendy children sometimes seemed more like real, three-dimensional people than some actual living, breathing kids I knew. Spiderweb for Two was the first Melendy book I read and it inspired me to create many mind-boggling clue hunts for my brother and my friends. The treasure hunts that figure prominently in the way my children and I celebrate holidays today can probably be traced back to those Melendyish moments of my childhood when I read this book over and over and over. (I can still recite some of the story's mysterious clues from memory!) I would suggest that you read the Melendy books in order: The Saturdays, The Four Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, Tatsinda (a fairy tale that is mentioned but not told in Then There Were Five) and finally Spiderweb For Two. Just be sure you don't stop before you get to Spiderweb for Two! Your whole family will enjoy it! If you want more funny, creative, warm and cozy family stories like these, try The Treasure Seekers, The Wouldbegoods, and New Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit.