The Moffats
Eleanor Estes
 The Moffats are a fatherless family in Cranbury, Connecticut, which Estes modeled after her hometown of West Haven. 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've lived there since shortly after her father died, and Janey can't imagine living anywhere else. Mama tells the children not to worry about it until it sells. 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 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. They use their Mama's dressmakers form, a pumpkin with real teeth and a scooter. When they take the boy up to see it, they get a big scare themselves, and only later realize their cat had made the 'ghost' move. 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 it while someone inside has scarlet fever. In the meantime she entertains them all with stories of when she lived in New York City. Eventually one family, the Murdocks, becomes interested in the yellow house, but they can't 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 look at something, and the little girl Letitia is the worst. She rings the doorbell over and over, and when she gets inside she eats candy, but never shares. Finally the house does sell, and the Moffats move to a different house, with a tiny yard, that turns out to have a girl Janey's age right next door. In the end, "Estes celebrates variety as the source of pleasure and growth."