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. ( )

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. ( )