it still delights me. The scenes are so evocative, and the children so perfectly drawn. (Both in the writing and the adorable and funny illustrations!) Set near London around the 1930s, this is sure to please not only the kids, but the parents who can completely relate to the comical, haphazard predicaments! The Ruggles family is at the center of this book. Mr. and Mrs. Ruggles are a dustman and a washerwoman, and they have seven children: Lily Rose, Kate, Jim, John, Jo Jr., Peg, and William. In each chapter, a member of the family has a problem or adventure which the reader experiences through that character's point of view. These include Lily Rose's accidental destruction of an article of clothing belonging to one of her mother's laundry customers, Kate performing well enough to be admitted to a school for which the cost of uniforms might be far outside the family budget, and William being entered in a baby show, which he would have a better chance of winning if only he would cut a tooth. Though the family is poor, there is very little in these episodes that would elicit pity from a child reader. Rather, the Ruggles have just as much fun - and get into just as much trouble - as any Melendy, Pye, Moffat or other literary heroine found in the children's books of the 1930s and 1940s. It's only as I'm writing this it dawns on me that the boys are more strongly portrayed than the girls, although I didn't realise that while reading. Not just because the boys roam further unsupervised but because the author gets deeper into the thoughts of the boys. There were two sequels, Further Adventures of the Family from One End Street published in 1956 and Holiday at the Dew Drop Inn published in 1962 and subtitled "A One End Street story" in the United States.

facing mum’s wrath when you came home with scabby knees, unravelling pigtails and a huge grin on your face. The writing structure is very clear, but I never felt it was unnecessarily simplified. There are strong characterisations of most of the Ruggles family, even William, although Peg perhaps get a bit over-shadowed. It attempts to portray life of a working class family with seven children. They seem to make do and get by, which I suspect might be slightly optimistic for the mid 19930s (but see above about churlishness). I particularly enjoyed the chapters where the three boys have their adventures. Cleanliness: The words "gosh" "golly" "thank goodness" and the like are used. The men smoke a pipe in this book and there is a section where it talks about them drinking alcohol. The children don't always behave right the first time but repent/learn from it.I desired their lives pretty wildly as a kid. The twins' adventures - and determination to create adventures in their lives - really jumped out at me the most as a child. I dreamed of the birthday cake at that party one of them gets accidentally invited to for years - "chocolate and coffee, mixed" - with a lattice of frosting and little silver balls all over it! who wouldn't? I'm sure several generations of children by now have dreamed about that cake. and their stories are all so funny and engaging! Eve Garnett lived in Lewes, Sussex for the last half of her life. She published more books but her greatest interest was in painting and she had several London exhibitions. Now tie all that up and what you have is a childhood that didn’t have much technology but what it did have was a tremendous capacity to create happy memories. Garnett subsequently wrote a final book in the series, Holiday at the Dew Drop Inn, which details Kate's return visit to Upper Cassington alone the following summer, with the setting remaining as the late 1930s. This was first published by Heinemann in 1962.

This, when I was growing up, was pretty near being The Best Book Ever. I read it over and over again, and it delighted me every time. We have all loved us some Famous Five. Whether it were boat-trips to family islands or bicycle trips to farmhouses run by rosy-cheeked farmwives or the endless summer trips that were remembered for the glorious picnic baskets; we loved them all. Further Adventures of the Family from One End Street is an English children's book by Eve Garnett which was first published by Heinemann in 1956. It is the first of two sequels to Garnett's Carnegie Prize-winning book, The Family from One End Street, which was published by Muller in 1937. Meet The Ruggles family that lives at No.1 One End Street in the fictional town of Otwell. Jo Ruggles is the local dustman and his wife Rosie is the local washerwoman. Jo and Rosie’s singular source of pride is their large brood of seven children. Yep, you read it right. Seven children. And each of these seven children has a distinctive personality and the promising ability to get into all kinds of mischief and mayhem. The Ruggles family is always low on funds but never on dignity. The Senior Ruggles rule their little clan with a blend of old-fashioned discipline, gentle cajolement and a gruff optimism.CILIP, successor to the Library Association, assigns the subject tags "family large roisterous" and "family working class" in its online presentation of the Carnegie Medal winning books. [2] Plot [ edit ] Recent British editions have been published by Puffin. The Family first appeared as a Puffin Book in 1942, under the editorship of Eleanor Graham, only a year after Penguin Books introduced the imprint.

There is a wholesomeness and innocence to these stories, and a feeling of nostalgia for a time when things were more straightforward and less complicated, which make them very appealing in today's current climate of increasing materialism and toxic social media. Eve Garnett herself wrote that The Family From One End Street was rejected as unsuitable by at least eight other publishers before being taken by Muller. the nervous excitement of visiting your first ever unsupervised birthday party and then returning home with that pleasant tiredness. I have mixed feelings about nostalgia. I want to avoid a mindset that irritates me in others, that there is inherent value in something that merely serves as a prompt for memories of times past. The memories are good, but the book is only a prompt. Who wants to live in the past? Especially if rose-tinted memories may seem more attractive than the mixed experience of living in the present.

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The story begins with Lily Rose, the eldest child, trying to help her mother Rosie with the ironing and ruining a green petticoat. She apologises to its owner, Mrs Beaseley, who forgives her. Mrs Beaseley also gives Kate (the second eldest child) her niece's cast off clothes for her new school, as the government funds to help with this are paid in arrears. Kate loses the school hat, and tries to sell mushrooms to pay for a new one, but the original is eventually found.