Beany Malone Series, by Lenora Mattingly Weber

   

  I'd never heard of this series until my sister received the first book for a birthday present. Not too long later, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the rest of them. Unfortunately (I'm guessing it has to do with them having been published in the 1900s) they can be a little hard to find. So I still haven't read quite the whole series yet, but I'm inching along. Because of that, I'm not sticking to my standard review outline; I'll just blend the Plot Summary and Discussions together into one overarching Discussions section.

       Beany Malone Series - Discussions:

       Meet the Malones - the family of four independent and resourceful teenagers who live with their newspaper editor father in a cozily shabby home. Their mother has died, and WWII is on, but the Malones' days are still bright. Fresh adventures -- and challenges -- constantly arise for the siblings, but the optimistic Malones are not to be beaten. With each other, and with their friends beside them, they'll conquer anything. 
     Still, they very much need each other for balance. Elizabeth, the lovely firstborn daughter, is married to Don McCallin, who is fighting in the war. Worried and terrified, Elizabeth needs her family's support. At the same time, however, she supports her younger siblings with her loving ways, thoughtful advice, and encouraging comments as she patiently waits for her husband to return to her safely.
    Johnny, the next oldest and the only boy, is a brilliantly clever, literary young man whose creativity knows no bounds. He shines in high school, is a favorite of all the teachers, and is generally looked upon as a genius. If he's a genius, though, he fulfills the cliche classic image of one -- easily distracted and careless about his appearance. In the kitchen, he's incredible -- if he can only pay attention to what he's doing. Johnny's dream is writing a book, a history of his hometown Denver, Colorado, and co-writing it with the elderly newspaperman Emerson Worth.
   Mary Fred comes next. Impulsive and daring, she's crazy about horses and riding -- to the point that she recklessly buys a horse she's ridden for years. This decision gets her into quite a bit of trouble, since she'll have to keep him now. She takes on the responsibility with determination, but finds it a little harder than she expected. Mary Fred's lively enthusiasm holds the family together. Johnny calls her "bubble-and-bounce Mary Fred," a fairly fitting name.
    Beany Malone is the youngest. Her real name is Catherine Cecelia, but Johnny nicknamed her Beany when she was a baby. Beany is simply the most capable out of all four Malones, whether she's baking, ironing, or sewing. At the august age of thirteen, she undertakes to redecorate her room, complete to new paint and curtains. She's always willing to lend a hand at school -- taking on a friend or two's duties is nothing, just so long as it takes a load off someone's shoulders. Loyal and persistent, Beany is never happier than when helping someone else out.
    Their father, Martin Malone, is the editor for the Daily Call, the city's newspaper. Because of his necessary absences to cover events, the Malones have developed independence. But that independence doesn't mean they don't treasure the days they have with their thoughtful, warmhearted Father. Compassionately, he reaches out to elderly Emerson Worth, who's sunk into the depths of poverty since his days of newspaper work, and needs meals and people who will willingly listen to his historic tales of the old days. Johnny, fired by Emerson's passion for the events he's witnessed, decides to write a book with the old man, and it becomes his dream for their book Our City Has Deep Roots to be published.
    Lest you think that these books are merely entertainment, here are some observations about ideas expressed in the Beany Malone Series. In the first book, Meet The Malones, when the teenagers' grandmother comes for a visit, she immediately decides that some things need to change. Firm and used to taking charge, Nonna promptly turns things upside down. She manages all the meals and housekeeping. At first she seems like a fairy godmother, what with everything she buys for the Malones - a shining new typewriter for Johnny, and lovely clothes for the girls, including a gorgeous dress for Mary Fred's school's Spring Formal. But under her relentless rule, the Malones' responsible independence begins to slip away slowly. And as Emerson Worth puts it, "The highest price you can pay for something is nothing." This bothers them... is it worth having wardrobes of clothes and all the time they want to go out with their friends when they lose what they really value? And another example. In Make A Wish For Me, Beany's told to write an "uplifting article" for the school newspaper on some sort of deep and inspiring theme. At some prompting from her father, she begins to develop the idea "The price of greater freedom is greater responsibility," a theme that plays out throughout the book as well as her essay.
    Like I said earlier, I haven't read the whole series; I've only read Meet The Malones, Beany Malone, Leave It To Beany!, Make A Wish For Me, and Happy Birthday, Dear Beany. There are several books which I hope to read someday, and I can't speak for those ones. But as far as I know, the Beany Malone Series is a delightful series of one family's resourceful independence and their varied adventures that place the reader into their World War II setting.