Puss Reboots: Blog: March 2008: The Middle Moffat

Recent posts

Book Reviews:

Bleach Volume 9 by Tite Kubo.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Marakami.
The Boarder by Alexander Jablokov.
Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry.
Count to Ten Piggy Wiggy by Christyan and Diane Fox.
Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man by Tim Allen.
Exit Strategy by K. D. Wentworth
Forgive Me by Amanda Eyre Ward.
The Four Ugly Cats in Apartment 3D by Marilyn Sachs.
Flush by Carl Hiaasen.
Frogs by Martin Schwabacher.
He Rents, She Rents by Richard Roeper and Laura Viera.
Hotel Cat by Esther Averill
Immortal by Traci L. Slatton.
The Ka of Gifford Hillary by Dennis Wheatley.
Last Chance Saloon by Marian Keyes.
Leadership Brand by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood.
Lorna Doone (Abridged) by R. D. Blackmore
Lost Pilgrim by Gene Wolf.
The Magnificent Mummy Maker by Elvira Woodruff.
Manhattan is Missing by E. W. Hildick.
The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes.
Mommy Hugs by Anne Gutman and Georg Hallensleben.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.
The Overseer by Albert E. Cowdrey.
Park by Pierre Pratt
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle.
Q & A by Vikas Swarup
The Rocky Mountain Moving Picture Association by Loren D. Estleman
Rumple What? by Nancy Springer
Sea Turtles by Emilie U. Lepthien.
The Second Descent by Richard Paul Russo.
Stanley in Space by Jeff Brown and illustrated by Scott Nash.
Take a Stand, Rosa Parks! by Peter and Connie Roop.
Tall by Jez Alborough.
Trucks and Diggers by DK Publishing.
Women & Self-Esteem by Linda Tschirhart Sanford and Mary Ellen Donovan

Miscellaneous:
Kirby Went to the Beach by Sean Sammis

Previous month

The Middle Moffat: 03/27/08

The Middle Moffat is the sequel to The Moffats and is a Newberry Honor book. It follows Jane Moffat's attempts to make something of herself as she's tired of just being the middle child.

Each chapter is a different adventure of Jane Moffat: she plays basketball, gives an unusual organ recital, and confronts the local fixit man. Her main goal though in this book is making sure that her 99 year old neighbor (a Civil War vet) make it to his 100th birthday. Jane likes him because he calls her the "mysterious Moffat."

Although the overall tone of The Middle Moffat is upbeat the book does cover a number of tough subjects: poverty, death in the family and war. Although the book was published during WWII, Jane Moffat most likely living through WWI.

The Middle Moffat was illustrated by Louis Slobodkin and his drawings highlight a lot of the humor of the book much as William Steig's drawings do for Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House.