Lenora Mattingly Weber (1895–1971)

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.… (plus d'informations)

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.… (plus d'informations)

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.… (plus d'informations)