Blog on the Lillypad
Saturday, February 14, 2004
 | The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes
The second in the four-book Moffat series won the Newberry Award for its inspired portrayal of Janey Moffat. Janey lives in a delightful, wonder-filled world that exists half in reality and half in an imaginative composite of daydreams, classic stories, and appreciation of the natural beauties found even in small town Cranbury Connecticut in the early 1900's. |
Caught in the middle with "Syliva the oldest," and "Joey the man of the family" ahead of her in age; and "Rufus the baby" after her, Jane chooses to name herself "the mysterious Middle Moffat". As with so many of her schemes, she soon realizes that this is a bit too grand, and she shortens the title to the "Middle Moffat", but not before the town's oldest inhabitant gets wind of the mystery---a secret they share all the way to his 100th birthday. Jane's simple life abounds with gentle adventures: finding and losing a best friend, and then finding her again; innocently saving the Cranbury girl's basketball team, and re-capturing the neighborhood's stock of roller skates locked up in the basement of the local kid genius.
Though gentle in tone, this book keeps me turning the pages all the way through. It makes an excellent read-aloud book for children and exposes them to a culture of a century gone by, the World War I era in New England. In addition, though I consider the modern covers to lack the necessary flare, Louis Slobodkin's minimalist pencil illustrations in the book add a delight for the reader. With a deft hand and a few light touches, he catches the style of dress for children from that era, and---even more important---the sincere facial expressions and body language universal to all children. His comical drawings prompt me to page through the book and simply look at the pictures.
