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New! Subscribe to this book as a podcast and download all chapters at once. The Melendy Family is so real to me that they feel like friends. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.Here is The Melendy Quartet by Elizabeth Enright. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms.

Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.įamilies in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house-and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw-Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend).

Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and-most serious-civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves-during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.

The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright