Early 20th century. Similar in tone to Winter Cottage, Railway Children, A Lemon and a Star, The Melendy series, The Great Brain, Half Magic. A mother (widow?) and her children are trying to make ends meet in Connecticut(?). There's a scene in which the eldest son loses money he's supposed to use to buy coal, and another where one of the sisters befriends an elderly neighbor and they put on a play.
Any ideas?
Butterfinger I'm tempted to say Five Little Peppers and How they Grew, but not 100% positive. The family is poor and the mom is a widow. 5y
ImperfectCJ @Butterfinger Definitely a similar premise, but I don't recall there being a wealthy benefactor in the one I read. I'll have to check out Five Little Peppers, though... I hadn't heard of it! Sooo many single-parent families trying to eke by in children's literature... 5y
Bookwormjillk I was going to say Five Little Peppers too 5y
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ImperfectCJ @Bookwormjillk There are a lot of similarities, but there are some significant scenes in the synopsis (daughter kidnapped?) that didn't happen in the book I read. My daughter suspects I dreamt the book; I can't dismiss that possibility. 5y
Bookwormjillk @ImperfectCJ I don‘t think you did. I‘m pretty sure I‘ve read it too. 5y
ImperfectCJ @Bookwormjillk @Butterfinger I think it might be...![[tagged book]](https://image.librarything.com/pics/litsy_webpics/icon_taggedBook@3x.png)
The Moffats 5y
The MoffatsBookwormjillk @ImperfectCJ ah ha! 5y
TheAromaofBooks I definitely think @ImperfectCJ is right - The Moffats. There's a whole series of those books, and they're all pretty adorable. 5y
Eggs Yes the Moffats series!!! Loved them so! Bituminous coal is mentioned-Mrs Moffat calls it “By-two-minutes” bc that‘s how quickly it burns @Butterfinger @ImperfectCJ @Bookwormjillk @TheAromaofBooks (edited) 5y
ImperfectCJ @Eggs Yes! I just looked up my Goodreads reviews and I'm almost 100% it's The Moffats. Well, the first two in the series...I seem to have combined The Moffats and The Middle Moffat in my memory. My kids don't remember them at all, though, so it looks like I have to read the books to them again! @Butterfinger @Bookwormjillk @TheAromaofBooks 5y
Eggs @ImperfectCJ They‘re all good📚💕📚 5y
Butterfinger I'm glad we found the answer. I had not heard of the series. Thank you for adding to my tbr list. 😊 5y
ImperfectCJ @Butterfinger And thanks for mentioning Five Little Peppers! It's on my TBR now, which means maybe I'll get to it in this lifetime. 😂 5y
Scochrane26 You‘re the first person I‘ve seen mention The Great Brain. I thought I was the only one who remembers that series. I still have a couple of them at home. 5y
ImperfectCJ @Scochrane26 Not many people seem to know about it. It made its way onto my list of read-alouds from Jim Trelease's Read-aloud Handbook in part because we'd recently moved from Utah to Massachusetts, and I was missing Utah. My kids and I only read the first book. It deals with darker issues than I'd expected, but we enjoyed it. Sparked some deep conversations. 5y
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