Four-Story Mistake

Elizabeth Enright(what a great name for an author!)wrote quite a few wonderful books which have been mostly out of print until recently-so if you're looking for great, real, imaginative stories, I'd suggest buying all of them. "The Four Story Mistake", as other reviewers have noted, is just a wonderful slice of life, with the Melendy children growing up, adjusting to life in "the country". When I read it 30 years ago, it made me desperate to live in a ramshackle victorian house(great escapism for urban kids)! Although the story is set almost 50 years ago, it really doesn't "date" at all. Read it and see!

There is something about this book that is very, very special. There are some many moments in the Melendy series (of which I think this book is the best) that really stay with you always. A few---Christmas eve, and Randy talking about how Christmas eve sometimes feels more special than Christmas---as you are waiting for everything---I think about that every Christmas eve. Oliver seeing the Luna moth. Mona coming home from her first dance. The way Cuffy is described---I can picture her as if I knew her. It's hard to use my own words to do any justice to Enright's words. Just will say---I hope you will try this book and let it become as special a part of your life as it is of mine.

This is a book about the Melendy children-Mona, Rush, Randy and Oliver-who have lived in the city all their lives. Now they must move to an old mansion in the countryside, "The Four-Story Mistake." The house got its name because when built it was meant to be four stories, but was only built three stories high. The owners of the house built a cupola on top to make up for the missing fourth story. The house is full of places to hide and more adventures than anyone could imagine. I found the Melendy children very entertaining and their adventures quite humorous. I enjoyed this book a lot, and think it would be a very good book for other fifth-grade girls.

As a child I checked this book out because it was part of an collection of 3 Elizabeth Enright books(in one very large book now out of print) that was thick enough to put me first on our class reading chart (you moved up a level for every 100pgs). After 3 years and more than two dozen readings I returned it to the library. This book takes a child and thier imagination out to play with the Melendy kids and help them explore thier new house with all its secrets and adventures. Along the way it gives understanding of what it was like for American children in the WWII Era. For me this book inspired a lifelong interest in the real lives of people behind the statistics of our history. I have been looking for this book off and on for 20 years. Now I have found it and even better, my kids are old enough to go on Mona, Rush, Randy, and Oliver Melendy's adventures too. The Melendy's lives continue in the book Then There Were Five. Don't let the reasonable price fool you both books are treasures for a childs mind.