Then there were five [Paperback]

Elizabeth Enright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1975

A summer that promises to be eventful turns into something extra special when the four Melendy children become friends with the ophaned Mark Heron.

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

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Favorites from the 1940s series that began with The Saturdays, these stories of rural adventure feature the four Melendy children. In the first book, they befriend an orphan and dam a local stream. In the second, the younger boys receive a series of mysterious letters. Enright's own drawings are reprinted. Ages 8-12.

Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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

Review

"The Melendys are the quintessential storybook family...[their] ardent approach to living is eternally relevant." -- Publishers Weekly

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 241 pages
• Publisher: Dell; 4th Dell Printing edition (1975)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0007F3JD8
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,769,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite of the Melendy series, January 25, 2001

By 

jesharris "jesharris" (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Then There Were Five (Hardcover)

I have read and reread the Melendy Family series -- all four books -- since I was about 8 years old, and that's closer to 40 years ago now than I care to think. These books all have stayed with me emotionally, are all well loved -- and all absolutely are worth discovering as an adult if you missed them as a child.

But "Then There Were Five" remains my favorite of the four. It is the most like a "real" (grownup) novel in its plot, in the way the characters grow and change, and in the very vivid scenes set throughout. I still get shivers from the description of Mark and Rush spying on Oren and his pals at their illegal still, and especially from the chapter about the fire that sends a homeless Mark to live with his friends, the Melendys. The dark edges, to me, are what make this book the most compelling of the series. Yet it also brims with all the familial love and good-natured humor of the other Enright works.

This book, which originally ended the Melendy series ("Spiderweb for Two" came years later), is the one that stands out as a truly dimensional narrative work. I've always thought it would make a terrific family film, if one could only be made that was faithful to the World War II period and to the characters as well as the basic plot.

One of the things I love about Elizabeth Enright is how she educates her young readers while she entertains them. In "The Saturdays," I learned a bit about Wagner's "Siegfried" through Rush's trip to the Metropolitan Opera, and what petits fours were through Randy's tea with Mrs. Oliphant. In "The Four-Story Mistake," through Mona's radio acting job, I learned that radio was just as important to the 1940s as TV to the 1960s. In "Then There Were Five," thanks to Mark's homegrown talent for natural history, I learned about the Perseids meteor showers that come every August, and that an amanita mushroom is pale poison. (I also learned, thanks to Mona and Randy's kitchen disasters, that canning tomatoes isn't nearly as easy as it looks.) And I found out an amazing number of things about moths from Oliver's hobby of collecting caterpillars.

These are great books. Find them, buy them, read them!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Out of All Four Books, Number Three Ranks Second With Me, July 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Then There Were Five (Melendy Family) (Mass Market Paperback)

The Melendy Family books have been favorites of mine for over 30 years -- and getting closer to 40. This is a series that truly deserves to be called classic. *Then There Was Five* continues the kind of adventures and discoveries the Melendy kids had in *The Four-Story Mistake.* There's a new boy introduced in this book, the Mark who makes five. He and Rush get into a pretty hair-raising adventure involving Mark's guardian, the nasty Mr. Meeker. (Don't worry -- Mona, Randy, and Oliver have adventures, too.) As a child I didn't pick up on all of the nuances of this book. As an adult, I can. (The scene with the social worker makes me howl with sympathetic laughter.) If this book was a childhood friend, you'll be glad to meet it again. Parents, this is a good series. Buy it for your children (and if you haven't any children, buy it for yourself). Ann E. Nichols

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darkness and Light, October 8, 2002

By 

Chrijeff (Scranton, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Then There Were Five (Hardcover)

The third Melendy novel has a darker undertone than the preceding two, with the introduction of Mark Herron, a lonely orphan befriended by Rush and Randy, and his guardian-cousin, the fearsome Oren Meeker. There are thrills and heart-clutchers a-plenty--Rush and Mark spying on an illegal whiskey still, a vividly described house fire--but they're nicely leavened by the lighter incidents like the character of Mr. Jasper Titus, rural gourmand, and the resolve of Mona and Randy to undertake the canning of the family's victory-garden produce. And in the end everything comes out right, as it should in a juvenile. This is the book to which Enright was leading up with the previous two, and perhaps the best she wrote. The whole trilogy would make a splendid miniseries on TV (is any executive reading this? I'll even do the script!).