Lenora Mattingly WeberCritiques

The Malone family return in this third entertaining entry in Lenora Mattingly Weber's fourteen-volume Beany Malone series, as eponymous teenager Beany finds herself in hot water again because of her penchant for trying to make people happy by managing their lives for them. All is not smooth sailing as the Malones look forward to welcoming their distant Irish cousin Sheila McBride to their home, only to find that she isn't quite what they expected. Beany, determined to make this orphaned relative happy, instead drives her away by trying to change her (starting with her unsuitable blue dress). On the outs with her boyfriend Norbett Rhodes, with whom she quarrels after losing the charm bracelet he gave her, Beany also get into trouble by going behind the back of the advice columnist she is assisting, and publishing a letter and response in the newspaper that she shouldn't. The fallout from this decision—an abandoned baby now in her care—leads to more trouble and upset. Father Martie Malone, in the meantime, is once again called away, in order to work on a news story on the Navajo Reservation, while Johnny Malone continues to work to make elderly former newsman Emerson Worth's dream of sharing the early history of Denver a reality, only to find that honors won may come too late...

Originally published by Thomas Y. Crowell in 1950, and then reprinted in this paperback edition by Image Cascade Publishing in 1999, Leave It To Beany! is an engaging follow-up to its two predecessors. Although I wouldn't say I found it quite an appealing as Meet the Malones or Beany Malone—something about the wartime and immediate post-war settings of those earlier books lent them pathos—it was nevertheless quite fun to read. Of course, there were moments of discomfort here, chiefly in the way in which Beany and, to a lesser extent, the other Malone siblings were so oblivious to Sheila's unhappiness—but there were also plenty of moments of humor. One is never in much doubt as to the happy conclusion of each sub-plot, but it was still a pleasure to watch everything unfold, and to follow along as all of the quandaries into which Beany has gotten herself are eventually straightened out. My only critique, and it is a similar one to that I made in my review of Beany Malone, is that although the author depicts some very real emotional trauma here, in the form of Johnny's response to the death of Emerson Worth, I felt that the resolution was a little too rushed, a little pat. Deeply cast down by his loss, and grieving for some time, Johnny is suddenly fine, and his old self again, when Kay comes over on St. Patrick's Day. Of course, this kind of malt shop novel is meant to be mostly happy, I think, presenting a positive take on children and teenagers confronting challenges and overcoming them, so perhaps what I perceive as a rushed narrative in this regard, a too quick resolution to any truly negative emotional elements, is just a feature of the sub-genre. However the case may be, despite this criticism I nevertheless enjoyed this third visit with the Malones, and look forward to reading about their road trip in the next installment, Beany and the Beckoning Road.

The Malone family return in this follow-up to Meet the Malones, with youngest sibling Beany—full name: Catherine Cecilia Malone—taking over as protagonist from her older sister Mary Fred, the heroine of the previous book. Now sixteen, Beany is a student at Harkness High, where she has a strong crush on Norbett Rhodes, the nephew of the very man her father, newspaper columnist Martie Malone, has been crusading against. As if being "enemies" with Norbett weren't enough, Beany finds herself worrying about the happiness of each of her elder siblings when her father is sent away to Arizona for a few months, in order to regain his strength after a protracted illness. Deciding that the Malone way of opening their hearts and home to the world is misguided, and can only lead to pain, Beany tries to influence and guard each of her family members from vulnerability. But as she witnesses Mary Fred confronting a choice between popularity and what she knows is right (and what her heart wants); Elizabeth steadfastly waiting for and then supporting Don, her wounded veteran husband who is newly returned from World War II; and Johnny finding a way to help elderly family friend Emerson Worth realize his dream of seeing the early history of Denver preserved, she slowly discovers that the Malone way is best after all...

Published in 1948, five years after Meet the Malones, Beany Malone is also set around five years after that first book, shortly after the end of World War II, which looms large in the story. The storyline involving Don, who must have his injured leg amputated, would be one example of this, but so too would the entire sub-plot involving Mary Fred and Ander (whom I was happy to see were together as a couple!), and the controversy stirred up by returning GI college students with little interest in observing campus traditions. I thought that these elements of the book were quite interesting, from a historical perspective, offering a snapshot of the personal and cultural adjustments that would have been necessary on all sides, to integrate thousands of young men back into American society, after the horrors of their experiences in the recent war. I also found them quite moving, and admired both Elizabeth and Mary Fred for their response to the challenges they faced. Beany herself made a wonderfully sympathetic protagonist and heroine, so wholeheartedly invested in those she loves, even while imagining that it was possible to fence off her heart. The reader realizes immediately that this is a futile effort, but watching Beany come to that realization is one of the chief delights of the book. I found her romance with Norbett charming, and also frequently amusing, as she is so oblivious, and he so obtuse. If I had any criticism to make of the book, it would be the way in which the storyline involving Kay and Faye Maffley was resolved. While on the one hand I appreciated the way in which Weber explored the problems arising from a mother who attempts to be a peer and friend to her child, rather than their parent, on the other hand I found the overly pat and almost anti-climactic conclusion to that sub-plot rather unsatisfying. Despite this critique, I enjoyed this one every bit as much as, perhaps even a bit more than the first, and am eager to continue on with the story of Beany and the Malones. Recommended to anyone who has read and enjoyed the first book in the series, and to readers who enjoy lighthearted vintage fiction for children, or who are looking for children's books featuring loving Catholic families.

The loving and democratic Malones, known as "those awful Malones" to their next-door neighbor, "Mrs. Socially-Prominent Adams," must contend with a series of challenges, both individually and as a family, in this heartwarming children's novel from 1943. Told from the perspective of sixteen-year-old Mary Fred Malone, and set shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the story chronicles the doings of the Malones in the first year of America's involvement in World War II, as father Martie Malone, a respected newspaperman, leaves his children for a few months to report on events in Hawaii. Recently married eldest sister Elizabeth, with her newborn son in arms, returns to the family home as her serviceman husband Don is deployed. Fifteen-year-old Johnny Malone must work to repay the Wyoming woman whose egg delivery he destroyed in a car accident, while also attempting to earn the money needed for a new typewriter—necessary, if he and elderly family friend Emerson Worth are to write a history of the early days in their hometown of Denver. Thirteen-year-old Beany, convinced her tiny bedroom is fit only for a baby, has her eyes set on a redecoration project, one that will do away with juvenile rabbits and usher in the sunshine. And Mary Fred herself...? She must contend with Mr. Chips, the horse she bought from the riding stable with her prom dress money, and the competing claims of her new friendship with Ander, a Wyoming ranch boy in Denver to go to medical school, and her infatuation with high school sports hero Dike Williams, the uncontested king of Harkness High. Between all of this, their domineering step-grandmother Nonna descending upon the household in their father's absence, and the demands of helping servicemen and war orphans, the Malones have a lot on their plate...

The first of Lenora Mattingly Weber's fourteen-volume Beany Malone series, begun in 1943 and continuing through Come Back, Wherever You Are, published in 1969, Meet the Malones introduces readers to the eponymous Malone family and their chaotic but loving home in Denver. It is with the second book, Beany Malone (1948) that the heroine of the entire series was apparently revealed. However that may be, I found this first book in the series immensely charming, and raced through it in happy enjoyment. I found the period setting fascinating—this isn't historical fiction, even though set in a historical period, as it was written contemporaneously—and thought that some of the ideas presented, such as Martie Malone's insistence that it was his family's duty to keep their home open to the needy created by the war, were very poignant. They made me feel rather wistful, seeming like a relic of a bygone era in which civic duty was not so foreign of a concept to our culture. On a lighter note, there was quite a bit of slang here, some of it apparently unique to the high school attended by Mary Fred and Johnny, which also made this feel very much a product of another time. I appreciated the fact that the Malones were a middle-class Irish-American family, and that their Catholicism was a natural part of the story—not foregrounded, but a consistent undercurrent in their lives. Given the dearth of Catholics in mainstream American children's literature, both then and now, this is very welcome. Finally, the characters themselves really came alive, and I felt invested in their stories. Despite never feeling any doubt about the eventual resolution of both the Nonna and Dike Williams storylines, they elicited feelings of strong anger in me, and satisfaction when they eventually came to their inevitable conclusion. I finished this one with a desire to read the sequels, which I plan to do in short order, as well as other books by the author. Recommended to readers who enjoy lighthearted vintage fiction for children, who are looking for children's books featuring loving Catholic families, or who want stories set during World War II.

The second in the Beany Malone series. The first in the series by Lenora Mattingly Weber was published in 1948 with the setting seeing soldiers coming home from WWII. The series has continued to be reprinted for over 50 years! I think I sarted reading them in the mid 1960s, and though obviously dated, I am enjoying reading them again.

The Malones are a motherless family and Dad is a journalist. In the first book he left home to cover Pearl Harbor and in the second he's in Arizona recovering from pneumonia. The oldest daughter is in her twenties and has a 3 year old. They came back to her family home when her soldier husband was at war. There are 3 other girls and a boy in the family giving the author lots of plot opportunities! I've already got book 3 on the Kindle.½

I read all these Beany books a long long time ago and remember loving them.

This was a favorite series of mine in my teen years! I had to go to a neighboring town library to find it. I am not sure if they had this one. They were missing one or two of the collection and I am still trying to collect all of them!

Found this in an outgoing bucket at the library. I loved the old fashioned cover. I remembered it at once when I started reading. I read the first three quarters of it in a flash and then slowed down to enjoy the rest. I'll be looking for the others in the series. I'm glad to have found them again.

How could a month begin so well and end so horribly? Katie Rose Belford's romantic hopes and personal ambitions are dashed by people she trusted and she plans to run away, but a terrifying situation rallies her energies and re-focuses her life. This second book in the Belford series allows Katie to take center stage and shows both her foibles and strength of character. As in the first volume, characters from the Beany Malone series (this time Johnny and Miggs Malone) are woven into the plot. Well done.

I've been avoiding Beany Malone for years and years, laboring under the misapprehension that she was one of those books I dismiss as "soda shoppe romances". She's not. Well, maybe a little, but there's much more to Beany than that.

I started reading this book by accident. I was cleaning out my amazon inventory, trying to streamline my life. Beany's been in inventory for several years, and as I pulled her down from the shelf, it seemed more attractive to start reading than to continue working. I was skeptical but increasingly captivated as I went on.

It's a vanished world that Beany inhabits, one full of large skirts and small bedrooms, one where high school students who are actually held back in school due to academic nonperformance, and parent participation is optional.

The characters are believable, the plot is interesting if a little cluttered, and in short, I liked it much more than I expected to. Though I'm unclear on why Beany couldn't write that pivotal editorial herself.

There's a lot here to like. I especially liked the Catholicism of the family- that's a religion that gets a lot of ink via memoirs but in my experience, not so much in kidlit or YA. As a kid I knew way more about Jews and Episcopalians than I did about Catholics.

I also loved the way the war was woven through the narrative. When the father tells his kids that their house must always be open for the soldiers to visit, I admit to tearing up a bit. When did we lose that commitment, and why?

The wicked stepgrandmother was a bit too wicked, the saintly father a hair too saintly- all the characters were a little too much themselves, I think. There was a certain emphasis on defining traits that was wearing. Weber paints with a mighty broad brush.

I liked Mary Fred, the protagonist, very well. Her growth and confusion were believable and interesting. Johnny and Elizabeth, while both too good to be true, were fun to have around. And it was neat to see Beany from the outside after reading her book first.

Dated, sure. Questionable assumptions to be inferred from Nonna's career woman/evil bitch persona? Maybe yes. Wholesome? And how.

Meh. Beany is obnoxious, Mary Fred is clueless, Johnny is abstracted, Dad is absent, the housekeeper is stupid, the cousin is stiff-necked but multiply-wronged, the advice columnist is a crusty old saint with a heart of gold, the old guy is a demented and pitiful thing except when he's being noble, the boyfriend is a dork, the girlfriend's mother is clueless, the plot is a cardboard cut-out. I knew exactly where we were going. Hell, I even knew where the confounded bracelet was. But still, I read the whole thing.

Katie Rose Belford is the oldest daughter in a large, voluble Irish family in Denver. The family is long on love but frequently short of money. Katie, who is more bookish and dignified than her siblings or her mother, hankers after her glamorous society aunt, but events teach her the true value of her family and friends.

Weber is particularly good at creating stories about young girls who are trying to reconcile the differences between the desires of their eyes and those of their hearts, but Katie Rose is perhaps the least compelling character in the book. Her family and friends are quirky and fun, however, and it's fun to catch glimpses of the characters from the earlier Malone novels.½

The Beany Malone Series by Lenora Mattingly Weber. The 14 Book Collection includes, Meet the Malones; Beany Malone; Leave It to Beany; Beany and the Beckoning Road; Beany Has a Secret Life; Make a Wish for Me; Happy Birthday, Dear Beany; The More the Merrier; A Bright Star Falls; Welcome Stranger; Pick a New Dream; Tarry Awhile; Something Borrowed, Something Blue; Come Back, Wherever You Are. The Malones of Denver, Colorado are a warm open-hearted family with a welcoming home, open to friends and all others in need of physical and emotional nourishment. The series has the warmth and sense of solidarity intrinsic of wartimes and the post-war era. There is a general feeling of peace and simplicity. When the series opens, the Malone children are motherless, as Mary Malone has been dead for three years. The father, Martie Malone, is often absent due to his duties as editor of the Denver Call. Three of the four Malone children, Mary Fred, Johnny and Beany, live at home. The oldest Malone daughter, the beautiful, loving Elizabeth, has been married to Lieutenant Donald McCallin for one year. The Malones live on Barberry Street in a large, wide-bosomed gray stone home. Their surrounding neighbors are Mrs. Morrison Adams (known as Mrs. Socially-prominent Adams) in her red brick home with immaculate white trim and frilly curtains in the windows, and the imposing and stately home of the Judge Buell family.
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Fun old books to read, sometimes slightly boring but mostly enjoyable!½

This is one of my favorites in the Beany Malone series. Having been graduated from high school, Beany tries to focus on her future while at the same time manage her day-to-day responsibilities at her summer job at a local community center. And it's not just Beany ... in addition, several long-time members of the Malone kids' crowd also face big decisions about their future paths. It's very satisfying for people who have read and enjoyed the previous books in the series.

Beany's job at the community center is a fascinating look at 1961. She is the leader of the girls' youth group (next door neighbor Carlton is the center director, and leader of the boys' group), and the children at the center are new immigrants or (using the 1961 language of this book) Negroes. Their economic status isn't made explicitly clear, but it seems very low income although not quite poverty level. I think this is both a realistic and compassionate view of the situation as it was in 1961, but it's still a little startling to see an older Black woman employee of the center defer not only to college-age Carlton, but also to 17 year old Beany. I mention this not to take away from the community center portions of the book, which really are genuinely engaging, but to point out how believable and likable the characters are despite the changing times since the story was written.

Grade: A. One of the best Beany books!
Recommended: To people who like high school girls series fiction, especially fans of Anne Emery, Rosamond DuJardin, and Janet Lambert. This book will be more enjoyable to readers who are already familiar with the earlier books in the series.

First of the series. I wanted to be Beanie's BFF.