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    Then There Were Five
    Then There Were Five
    Then There Were Five
    Audiobook6 hours

    Then There Were Five

    Written by Elizabeth Enright

    Narrated by Pamela Dillman

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Come meet the four Melendy kids-Mona, Rush, Randy and Oliver!

    With Father in Washington and Cuffy, their housekeeper, away visiting a sick cousin, almost anythin might happen to the Melendy kids left behind at the Four-Story Mistake. In the Melendy family, adventures are inevitable: Mr. Titus and the catfish; Rush's composition of Opus 3; Mona's first rhubarb pie; Randy's arrowhead; and the auction! But best of all is the friendship with Mark Herron, which begins with a scrap-drive and comes to a grand climax on Oliver's birthday.

    Here is the third in Elizabeth Enright's classic children’s series telling the tales of a long and glorious summer in the country with the resourceful, endearing Melendy bunch!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherListen & Live Audio
    Release dateSep 17, 2024
    ISBN9781593163129
    Author

    Elizabeth Enright

    Elizabeth Enright (1907-1968) was born in Oak Park, Illinois, but spent most of her life in or near New York City. Her mother was a magazine illustrator, while her father was a political cartoonist. Illustration was Enright's original career choice and she studied art in Greenwich, Connecticut; Paris, France; and New York City. After creating her first book in 1935, she developed a taste, and quickly demonstrated a talent, for writing.  Throughout her life, she won many awards, including the 1939 John Newbery Medal for Thimble Summer and a 1958 Newbery Honor for Gone-Away Lake. Among her other beloved titles are her books about the Melendy family, including The Saturdays, published in 1941. Enright also wrote short stories for adults, and her work was published in The New Yorker, The Ladies Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, The Yale Review, Harper’s, and The Saturday Evening Post. She taught creative writing at Barnard College. Translated into many languages throughout the world, Elizabeth Enright's stories are for both the young and the young at heart.

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    Reviews for Then There Were Five

    4.5/5

    259 ratings12 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Parts of this book were very powerful and/or very amusing, but the gender roles seem to be getting more strict now that the girls are getting older, and I find that a little wearing. It's extra wearing since I recognize that in our household, I tend to reinforce these gender stereotypes by doing most of the cooking and cleaning, not because it's my duty as a woman to cook and clean but just because people are hungry and things are messy and someone's got to do something about it. The result is the same, though, I fear.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Four siblings gain a fifth in a terrible but fortuitous accident. Rush and Randy collect scrap metal, Oliver takes up fishing and moth-observing, Mona and Randy attempt to can a lot of garden produce, and there is a livestock auction and fair benefiting the Red Cross.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This is my favorite series right now and I’m not even a kid lol. It’s very interesting!
    • 5/5
      I love how they planned a fair and got a new "brother"
    • 5/5
      So so great I love it so so fun just wish there was 1000 of this series
    • 4/5
      The Melendy children continue to have delightful adventures in and around their home in the country, and one of those adventures eventually results in a new addition to the family.I’m still enjoying these books very much. I noticed in this one a few comments indicative of the period in which they were written — somewhat stereotypical remarks about Gypsies and Indians. Nothing as pejorative as what is found in, say, Little House on the Prairie, but enough that modern readers might want to be aware of it.
    • 4/5
      The Melendy family is another year older. This time Mona (15), Rush (14), Randy (12) and Oliver (almost 8) are collecting scraps to aid in the war effort. It's an interesting concept for a children's story. At each farmhouse (they still live in the country in that weird house) the children meet people they normally wouldn't ever encounter otherwise. At one particular house they meet Mark, a boy living in an abusive home. He becomes a fast friend...and the fifth member of the Melendy household.
    • 4/5
      The third the Melendy series after The Saturdays and The Four-Story Mistake. In the same rural WW2 home front setting as Four Story Mistake. A fifth child is adopted into the family after the death of his evil guardian, which is a bit grim for a children's book.. This is the actual copy of the book I read as a child which I managed to get when the library discarded it.
    • 5/5
      Beautifully narrated, which is such a relief. One worries, especially when old favorites are at stake.

      I love this book best of any of Enright's work, which is saying a lot. It's a perfectly splendid book, full of botany (gentians!), fauna (luna moth! bats!), the best children ever, the most congenial adults, and most of all, Enright's tender, lyrical, transcendent prose. Do yourself a favor- read, re-read or listen to this one right away.

      "Used-to doesn't mean anything any more, Randy. The used-to-world is all cut away from us now; floating away in the distance like a balloon or a bubble. It isn't real any longer. Perhaps it's a good thing that it's gone. I hope so."
    • 5/5
      Although written 70 years ago, this story of the four Melendy siblings' summer adventures in the countryside captivated my girls. Several elements were so old fashioned that I could only describe them by hearsay (telephone operators that connected and listened in on calls, horse and carriage rides, war rations), but the story of the siblings embarking on summer projects, befriending a boy with an abusive cousin, and figuring out the meaning of courage and friendship was timeless. I liked the old-fashioned touches that reminded me of a more innocent era (for example, the extent of the swear words are "Jeepers!" and "Golly!"). The girls loved this so much we are now going back to the beginning of the series and listening to the rest of the books. (This review was of the audio book)
    • 5/5
      I ran into a comment about this book and remembered reading the Melendy Family Quartet many, many years ago. I was addicted to Nancy Drew mysteries and my Mother took me to the bookstore and told me I could pick out any book as long as it wasn't Nancy Drew. I remembered loving this book and, over the years, have remembered many scenes from the books. So I bought them again to see if they were as good as I remembered. They were -- admittedly they're very much of their time (1940's) but the warmth and fun is there and ageless. I'd recommend these books to any child (and, frankly, any adult looking for a little innocent fun. All of the first three books are about the same in quality -- the only one that can be skipped is Spiderweb for Two -- which suffered a little from the lack of two of the four children.
    • 3/5
      Four siblings gain a fifth in a terrible but fortuitous accident. Rush and Randy collect scrap metal, Oliver takes up fishing and moth-observing, Mona and Randy attempt to can a lot of garden produce, and there is a livestock auction and fair benefiting the Red Cross.